Numbers in ASL are signed on one hand, and they follow rules that English speakers do not expect. The big ones: you count to five with the palm facing you, six through nine use the thumb touching a different finger, and the teens and tens follow patterns that let you learn thirty signs in the time it takes to memorize ten.
Every number from zero to thousand that we have filmed is below. Learn them in groups.
Zero to five
Zero is an O handshape. One through Five raise fingers, starting with the index. Three is the one that catches English speakers: it is thumb, index, and middle finger, not the three fingers you would hold up in a restaurant.
When you are counting things, your palm faces you. When you are telling someone an age, a time, or an address, your palm faces them. Both are correct; context chooses.
Six to nine
Here the thumb does the work. Six touches thumb to pinky. Seven touches thumb to ring finger. Eight touches thumb to middle finger. Nine touches thumb to index finger. The other fingers stay up and spread.
A quick way to remember: as the number goes up, the thumb moves toward the index finger. Six at the far end, nine at the near end. Practice six through nine as a set, going up and back down, until your thumb finds the right finger without thinking.
Ten and the teens
Ten is a thumbs-up with a small shake. Eleven and 12 flick one or two fingers up from a fist. 13, 14, and 15 show the base number with the fingers waving toward you.
16 through 19 combine ten and the single digit: a thumb that twists, then the six, seven, eight, or nine handshape. Some signers do these as a quick twist of the single-digit shape alone. The clip shows one common version; both are understood.
Twenty and the tens
20 is an L handshape that closes like a beak. 21 and 25 have special forms that are worth learning separately because they come up so often in ages and prices.
30, 40, 50, and the rest of the tens are the digit followed by zero: three then O, four then O, five then O.
60 through 90 follow the same digit-then-zero pattern. 1,000 taps a bent hand into the palm of your other hand, and it is how you say years and prices in the thousands.
Numbers in real sentences
Numbers in ASL do more than count. A number sign can absorb the thing it is counting: hold up a number and shake it slightly at the wrist, and it means "that many weeks" or "that many times" depending on context. Ages are signed at the chin: the sign Old followed by the number, or the number alone starting from the chin. Time of day is signed from the wrist, where a watch would be.
The tens and hundreds also combine the way you would expect. Twenty-five is twenty then five. One hundred twenty is one, hundred, twenty. Once the base set is automatic, everything else is assembly.
Practice set
Count from one to ten, then ten to one, three times a day for a week. Then do six through nine on their own until the thumb lands without looking. Then tell someone your age, your house number, and the time. Those three sentences cover most of the numbers you will ever sign.
Next up: ASL Greetings to introduce yourself, and the Money signs so you can combine numbers with dollars.