Beginner II

How to tell how long in time

This describes how to tell how long and duration in time in American Sign Language (ASL). The following illustrations demonstrate some ASL signs how to express a number of minutes and hours.

Gloss: (one) minute; (a) minute

This ASL word is a regular word for minute.

This regular morpheme can be incorporated with a number between two and nine. For example, two minutes above. This morphological process is called numeral incorporation.

Beyond ten, one signs the number and then "hour". E.g. ELEVEN+HOUR

This ASL word hour is a regular, base word.

Like minutes, this "hour" morpheme can be incorporated with a number between two and nine. For example, three hours as shown above.

Can you guess what does it mean? Half hour.

Any more questions? Ask us.

Related posts

Also see Telling time (o'clock).

How to tell frequency in time.

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