Beginner I

How to tell frequency (time) in sign language

Learn how to express frequency using time-related vocabulary in ASL sign language.

daily; every-day

Frequency of week in ASL

The following illustrations demonstrate some ASL signs to express recurring weeks.

weekly

This regular ASL word (or morpheme) week is inflected to weekly. It is also known as a form of pluralization.

biweekly

This ASL sign weekly also can be modified by incorporating with a number between 1 and 9. For example, biweekly, tri-weekly above, quad-weekly, and so on up to 9. The movement is only twice for all of them (-weekly).

tri-weekly

This ASL sign weekly also can be modified by incorporating with a number between 1 and 9. For example, biweekly, tri-weekly above, quad-weekly, and so on up to 9. The movement is only twice for all of them (-weekly).

Frequency of months

The following illustrations demonstrate some ASL signs how to to express a frequency of month(s).

monthly; every-month

bimonthly; every-two-months

The base word (or morpheme) monthly can be modified by incorporating with a number between one and nine. For example, bimonthly above, "every three months", "every six months", etc. The repetition of the sign (movement) is generally twice.

Frequency in year

This describes how to tell a frequency in year in ASL.

Gloss: yearly or every-year

Gloss: biyearly or every-two-year

Gloss: quadrennial or every-4-year

Numeral incorporation with this also work for the numbers 3 and 5 (e.g. every 3 years and every 5 years respectively).

Exercise

Learn some adverbs of frequency in ASL: always, never, often, sometimes, usually, once, twice, every day, a week, a month, a year. Practice some SVO and OSV sentences.

Use the present simple tense to say or ask how often you do things.

"How often do you...?"

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Related posts

Also see how to tell how long (duration) in time.

New to sign language? "Where do I start?" or "How do I start learning sign language?" This ASL Rookie guide lists some selected links to the tutorials for ASL beginners to get started and keep rolling. It may be a useful review for intermediate-level learners and ASL students as well.

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Expressing needs and wants

  1. Making commands or requests

Talking about activities

  1. Frequency of time: how often?

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Stories, poems, performance arts, etc. in sign language.

This documentation project follows a child's language acquisition, literacy development, and phonological acquisition in sign language, specifically ASL, from newborn to age five in a natural native-ASL environment and visual culture.