Sign Language Numbers for Beginners

When you choose to learn sign language for a loved one, your career or for the opportunity to integrate with the Deaf community; it gives you an amazing new perspective of the world. Like with any language it’s important to familiarize yourself with the basics of the language first including the ASL alphabet and ASL numbers.

Once you learn ASL, you will be able to get by in many different situations even if you don’t know a phrase you can always spell it out. It’s handy to know the numbers in sign language when you are talking about quantity, money or time. 

The good news is you can learn sign language numbers with very little effort. Numbers 1 to 5 are just like counting on your fingers and numbers 6 to 9 are counted by touching a finger to your thumb. We will also teach you how to count from 10-12, 20, 21 and how to say a hundred, thousand and million.

Read on to get started and remember to keep counting in sign language because practice makes perfect.

ZERO

To make this sign, use all your five fingers to make a full circle. 

One

To make this sign, you have to lift your index finger.

TWO

To make this sign you have to lift and extend your index and middle finger.
Tip: This is the same as the letter V. 

Three

To make this sign you need to extend the thumb, index, and middle finger.
Tip: Not to be confused with the letter ‘W’. They are different. 

FOUR

To make this sign you have to extend all four fingers except your thumb.

FIVE

For this sign, you have to extend all five fingers.

Six

To make this sign you must bring together your thumb and pinky with the remaining fingers extended.

SEVEN

To make this sign you must bring together your thumb and ring finger with the remaining fingers extended.

EIGHT

To make this sign you must bring together your thumb and middle finger with the remaining fingers extended.

NINE

To make this sign you must bring together your thumb and index finger with the remaining fingers extended.

TEN

To make this sign you need to make a fist and wave your thumb.

Eleven

To make this sign you must open your index finger with your palm facing you.

TWELVE

To make this sign you must open your index and middle finger with your palm facing you.

TWENTY

To make this sign you should let your thumb and index finger touch each other twice.

TWENTY-ONE

To make this sign you should let your index finger open and your thumb to trigger towards the opposite side.

Hundred

To make this sign you should form a C-shape with your hand.

Thousand

Active Hand (AH) bent to form an angle, palm down, Passive Hand (PH) palm upright in front of the chest; tap AH fingertips against the heel of PH palm.

Million

The same position of “Thousand” Sign, followed by AH moving in an arc forward to tap on PH fingertips. Tip: 1000×1000

The demand for ASL is only growing because learning sign language has many benefits, that can help you both personally and professionally. Now that you have learned ASL numbers, you can now give someone your phone number, share your age or date of birth, apartment number and so much more.

Continue learning with our American Sign Language online course. For every course, you book we will donate a course to someone in need on your behalf.