Questions in British Sign Language are an essential part of learning BSL. They are taught in the first module of BSL Level 1 as they are the building blocks to communicating in BSL. Check out our list of question signs below and our tips for using them when communicating in Sign Language.
Table of Contents
- Introducing the 6 questions in British Sign Language
- How to sign “who” in BSL
- How to sign “what” in BSL
- how to sign “where” in BSL
- How to sign “when” in BSL
- How to sign “why” in BSL
- How to sign “how” in BSL
- How to sign “which”
- Other useful resources:
- Does it matter which hand I use?
Introducing the 6 questions in British Sign Language
In English the questions who, what, where, when, how ,why and which are known as open questions so need a longer response and not just ‘yes’ or ‘no’. In spoken English, we change the intonation in our voice to show we are asking a question. We might also furrow our brow to give a visual clue that we are asking a question.
In BSL, we furrow our brow but questions come at the end of the sentence. For example, if you asked where is the ball? In sign language you would ask ‘ball – where?’
How to sign “who” in BSL
Watch how to sign ‘who’ in British Sign Language
To sign ‘who’, you need to hold your index finger up and move it in small circles, whilst mouthing (not speaking) the word who.
How to sign “what” in BSL
Watch how to sign ‘what’ in British Sign Language
To sign ‘what’ you need to hold up your index finger in front of your chest area. You move your index finger in short side-to-side movements, whilst mouthing ‘what’.
how to sign “where” in BSL
Watch how to sign ‘where’ in British Sign Language
To sign ‘where’, you hold your hands in front of you with palms up. You move both hands in small circles, whilst mouthing the word’ where’.
How to sign “when” in BSL
Watch how to sign ‘when’ in British Sign Language
To sign ‘when’, you raise your dominant open hand towards your cheek. You then flutter your fingers on your cheek whilst mouthing ‘when’.
How to sign “why” in BSL
Watch how to sign ‘why’ in British Sign Language
To sign ‘why’, you raise an extended index finger on your dominant hand and then lie your arm diagonally across your body. Your index finger should rest on the front of your opposite shoulder. You also mouth ‘why’.
How to sign “how” in BSL
Watch how to sign ‘how’ in British Sign Language
The sign for ‘how’ in BSL relates to actions i.e. how to do something. For example if you ask how to tie a shoe lace, you would sign ‘tie a shoelace, how?’
There are two ways of signing ‘how’:
- You bring two open hands together
- you bring two clawed hands together (palms faced upwards)
This is different from ‘how many’ which relates to quantity of something, ‘how are you’ which relates to greeting someone or ‘how much’, which relates to the cost of something. BSL is contextual, so signs will vary depending on the context of the situation.
How to sign “which”
Watch how to sign ‘Which’ in British Sign Language
You use a ‘Y’ hand shape and move it back and forth in front of you.
Other useful resources:
There are facial expressions (known as non-manual features or NMF) associated with asking questions in British Sign Language. Surrey University in partnership with Dot Sign language have a number of videos that explain how to ask BSL questions correctly.
There is also a BSL questions practise sheet by Gavin Lilley who is a qualified BSL tutor.
Does it matter which hand I use?
It doesn’t matter which hand you use to sign the BSL questions. However, you usually use your dominant writing hand for the active part of a sign.
Hot tip: Think of your hands like a pen and paper – your dominant hand is like a pen and your passive hand is like the paper. When you sign, your dominant hand will perform the sign on your passive hand. Have a look at the video on our post about fingerspelling that explains this concept in more detail.