Signs for LOVE

ASL signs for LOVE

How do you sign "love" in ASL?

Meaning: An intense feeling of deep affection.

Pronunciation/articulation: Two-handed "S" hands (handshape), palms in (orientation), in contact with the torso with crossed arms (location), move toward the torso (movement).

Meaning: have a great affection or liking for; "love it"; a favorite.

Unlike the other ASL signword "love" which is used to refer to the emotional affection for another person as in "I love you.", the ASL word "love-it" also known as the gloss KISS-FIST is usually referred to an object, an activity, or a person (as in admiration or favorite). E.g. "I love playing soccer." This sign is sometimes fluid in contexts that it can mean a favorite (which has multiple signwords).

Also see I-LOVE-YOU (ILY), LOVE-YA, LOVE-IT (known as KISS-FIST in gloss).

More related: fall in love, love at first sight, ADORE, CHERISH.

Opposite: HATE.

Reading and Storytelling

This video shows the mother and her four-year-old bilingual girl reading aloud (and translating) the book, "Mommy, do you love me?" by Jeanne Willis.

Baby signing LOVE

Watch how an infant acquires the ASL word LOVE in a timeless time-lapse video of phonological and language development from birth to age 5. <3 <3

Remember that infants (regardless of ASL or English or any other languages regardless of the modalities) begin to acquire a concept of pronouns at about 18 months and understand how to use pronouns at about age 24 months. It's interesting to capture some moments of using pronouns in the language development in the video.

Read more on a post about ILY and love stories in sign language.