Everyday American Sign Language
Learn to communicate naturally in American Sign Language. Build conversational confidence through practical signs, visual grammar, and 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.
25 levels across 3 sections, about 50 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through First Conversations and Core Mechanics, Visual Grammar and Spatial Expression, and Real-World Fluency and Deaf Community Norms. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Everyday American Sign Language
- Everyday greetings like HELLO use an open hand moving outward from near the temple or forehead
- Polite exchanges start with simple open-hand anchor signs rather than translating word-for-word English openers
- Beginning with clear, basic greeting signs sets a comfortable rhythm without needing complex syntax
- One hand is chosen as the dominant lead hand for one-handed signs and the active mover in two-handed signs
- Switching dominant hands mid-conversation creates visual clutter and confuses the viewer
- The non-dominant hand serves primarily as a stationary base or symmetrical support
- Nodding your head while signing confirms an affirmative statement or answer
- Shaking your head side-to-side while signing negates the message
- Head movements must align simultaneously with hand movement rather than happening after
- The sign AGAIN (or REPEAT) signals your partner to replay what they just signed
- Clarification signs prevent misunderstandings early instead of nodding along blindly
- The standard signing space spans roughly from the waist to just above the head and slightly beyond the shoulders
- Keeping signs in this frame allows the conversational partner to track facial expressions and handshapes simultaneously
- Dropping hands below the waist or reaching far above the head forces the viewer to shift eye gaze away from your face
- Fingerspelling is used for proper nouns like personal names, city names, and brand titles
- Common nouns, verbs, and adjectives have dedicated signs and are not spelled letter-by-letter
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.
How do you make the everyday sign for HELLO in ASL?
Get it right to open this lesson and 24 more in the app.
Where Everyday American Sign Language takes you
- 1
First Conversations and Core Mechanics
- Everyday Greetings and First Contact
- Fingerspelling and Introducing Yourself
- The Five Parameters and Question Faces
- 2
Visual Grammar and Spatial Expression
- Sentence Structure and Spatial Anchors
- Visual Description Through Classifiers
- Time Concepts and Number Systems
- 3
Real-World Fluency and Deaf Community Norms
- Conversational Mechanics and Visual Etiquette
- Deaf Culture and Linguistic Heritage
3 sections · 8 units · 25 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
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.
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