Everyday American Sign Language
Start communicating in American Sign Language using foundational signs, spatial grammar, and facial expressions. Build confidence for everyday conversations and learn essential Deaf cultural etiquette.
Like Duolingo, but for Everyday American Sign Language. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
22 levels across 3 sections, about 44 minutes end to end, roughly 9 days at five minutes a day. It moves through First Conversations, The Visual Grammar of Signing, and Navigating Real-World Interactions. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Everyday American Sign Language
- Hello originates near the side of the forehead or temple as a formal or casual salute
- Signs like thank you anchor on or near the chin and project outward toward the listener
- Please is centered on the chest in a smooth rubbing circle
- Your dominant hand does the moving, tapping, or tracing
- Your non-dominant hand acts as a stationary platform or base
- Switching dominant roles mid-conversation looks confusing and inconsistent to a deaf signer
- Sign language does not use separate spoken linking verbs like 'is' or 'am'
- Pronouns like 'I', 'you', and 'he/she' are formed by pointing directly at the person or yourself
- Pointing with the index finger is grammatical and polite in sign language, unlike in spoken etiquette
- Head nodding (affirmation) and head shaking (negation) occur at the exact same moment as the hand signs
- A headshake overrides or negates the sign being formed on the hands while it is signed
- Separating the head movement from the hand motion breaks the grammar of the visual sentence
- Looking directly at the signer's eyes and face shows attentive listening and captures facial grammar
- Peripheral vision tracks the movements of the hands without needing to look down at them
- Looking down away from their face signals that you have broken attention or stopped listening
- Fingerspelling is reserved for proper nouns like people's names, brand names, and cities without established signs
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Everyday American Sign Language the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Where do your fingertips start when you sign thank you?
Get it right to open this lesson and 21 more in the app.
Where Everyday American Sign Language takes you
- 1
First Conversations
- Greetings and First Exchanges
- Fingerspelling and the Manual Alphabet
- 2
The Visual Grammar of Signing
- The Five Parameters of Every Sign
- Facial Grammar and Asking Questions
- Using Space and Directional Verbs
- 3
Navigating Real-World Interactions
- Describing People, Objects, and Surroundings
- Deaf Culture and Visual Etiquette
3 sections · 7 units · 22 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Everyday American Sign Language is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Everyday American Sign Language today.
Download Tomo, search Everyday American Sign Language, and play your first lesson in under a minute.