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LearnSigns 29: Fruits

Fruits, as well as food in general, can be one of those groups of signs which vary widely across the US. In this lesson I give you the signs for common fruits that seem to be somewhat consistent in the way they are signed. However, there are a few fruits that I mention a couple of different ways to sign them.

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LearnSigns 28: Superlatives

After I did the whole video calling these superlatives, I did my homework and found out they are called degrees of comparison. Superlatives and comparatives are the two degrees.

The comparative compares one item to another, or a group of items. It tells you which one has more of a quality or property in the comparison. An example is, “my brother is older than I.” You can think of this as “more than.”

The superlative compares one item against a group and tells you which one has the greatest property or quality of all the items. An example is, “my brother is the oldest.” You can think of this one as “the most.”

Comparatives and superlatives are applied to adverbs and adjectives. We often do this with the words more and most, or with the suffixes -er and -est.

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LearnSigns 27: Giving Directions

This lesson is about how to give directions. The concept of how to give directions seems to be difficult for many people. Don’t let it discourage you.

Remember that the key to giving directions is to give them from your perspective. It is called the signers perspective. Each step should be given as if you were the one going to the location. Consequently, when you are receiving directions from someone remember they are telling you as if they were going to the location.

New vocabulary learned in this lesson:

  • North
  • South
  • East
  • West
  • Beside
  • In front of
  • Behind
  • Before
  • After
  • Past / Beyond
  • Right
  • Left

If you are adventurous and want to try your hand at watching a video in signs there is a good video about giving directions in sign language done by a deaf lady. The video is loosely captioned and gives you an idea of what she is saying in sign language. It is well done and explains direction giving with some good examples.

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LearnSigns 26: Preposition Usage

In the last lesson we talked about how to sign various prepositions. In this lesson we talk about how to use those signs properly. You can get the list of vocabulary from the other lesson.

The main focus of this lesson is the word OF. It is used as an example word on how to handle prepositions and how to think through all words so that you can sign them properly. Your focus should be on the meaning of the words, not just the sign that we assign to the words.

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LearnSigns 25: Prepositions

This is a list of common prepositions. There is a big difference in just knowing the signs for the words and using the right sign for the meaning when it comes to prepositions. This lesson focuses on the signs while the next one is focused on the usage of those signs.

Vocabulary learned in this lesson:

  • In / Into / Inside
  • Out / Outside
  • While / During / As
  • Since / Up to now
  • On
  • Off
  • Over / Above
  • Under / Beneath / Below
  • With / Together
  • Without
  • Through
  • To
  • From
  • For
  • Of
  • Around / About
  • Up
  • Down

If you need the captions for the video, please click the Closed Caption [CC] button in the video player.

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LearnSigns 24: Doctor’s Office

In the last lesson we talked about different professions. In that we covered doctors and nurses. This follow-up lesson talks about the different things you need to know when visiting the doctor’s office. Obviously this doesn’t cover everything, but these are several important ones. If there are any specific doctor office type words you would like to know about, leave a comment below.

Vocabulary covered in this lesson:

  • Doctor
  • Nurse
  • Office
  • Hospital
  • Sick
  • Vomit
  • Pain
  • Fever
  • Medicine
  • Cold
  • Cough
  • Prescription
  • Pharmacy
  • Surgery
  • Healthy

View the episode transcript.