Learn 100 Common ASL Signs: A Flashcard Study Guide to Everyday Sign Language

Most ASL courses start with the alphabet. Fluent signers will tell you that fingerspelling is the slow lane: what gets you through a real conversation is a core of about a hundred everyday signs — pronouns, question words, verbs, family, time, feelings. That is exactly what the ASL: Top 100 Common Signs deck (code CD6135, 99 cards) on Flip It contains. Each card gives the English word on the front and a short handshape-and-movement description on the back, so you can rehearse the sign physically every time you flip.

What a card looks like

The 99 signs, grouped

• Politeness and basics: hello / hi, thank you, please, you're welcome, yes, no, sorry, help, stop, wait, finish / done.
• Pronouns: I / me, you, he / she / it, we / us, they / them.
• Question words: what, where, when, why, how, who.
• Core verbs: want, need, like, love, know, understand, don't know, think, remember, forget, eat, drink, sleep, work, play, go, come, learn, teach, read, write, talk / say, hear, see, look, listen, ask, answer.
• People and family: family, mother, father, brother, sister, friend, baby, child, man, woman, boy, girl, name.
• Places and things: home, house, school, car, money, book, door, window, chair, table, bathroom / toilet, water, food.
• Time: time, day, night, morning, afternoon, today, tomorrow, yesterday, now, later, before, after.
• Feelings and states: good, bad, happy, sad, angry / mad, afraid / scared, tired, sick, hurt / pain, hot, cold.

Two tips specific to this deck

Use the forehead / chin line as a grammar rule. Several pairs in the deck differ only by location: father (thumb on forehead) vs mother (thumb on chin), brother (L-hand at forehead) vs sister (L-hand at chin), boy (forehead, like a cap brim) vs girl (thumb traces jawline), man vs woman. In ASL, male signs live at the forehead and female signs at the chin. Learn the rule once and four pairs of cards become trivial.

Sign the card, don't just read it. The backs are written as movements ("fist nods like a head nodding" for yes, "hand wipes across forehead" for forget). Perform every sign as you reveal the answer, ideally in front of a mirror or phone camera. Motor memory is what keeps signs available at conversation speed; reading a description twice does not.

Also watch the mirror pairs built into the deck: tomorrow and yesterday share the same A-thumb on the cheek and differ only in direction; before and after are the same flat hand moving back versus forward; hear points to the ear while listen cups it.

Suggested pace

Ten to fifteen signs a day, roughly one category per session, in the order above. Pronouns and question words first — they let you form real questions ("where bathroom?", "what name you?") from day two. Review the time and feeling categories together, since those are the ones people mix up most.

Log in to Flip It, look up CD6135 or "ASL: Top 100 Common Signs" in the library, and start signing.