Hello, my name is Victoria and I teach American Sign Language at TakeLessons. In this video you're going to learn the basics of ASL sentence structure. We'll go over how to sign full sentences using the time topic comment rule. So keep watching and don't forget to check out our free online ASL classes. So English sentence structure and ASL sentence structure differ quite a bit, most of the time. In English for example we will be able to say the adjective before the object. In ASL we'll set up our object first and then give the adjective. This is what we call topic-comment. So you're setting things up, your object your subject, whatever it is, and then telling what it does, describing how it looks, how it feels, whatever it may be. All those things are part of your comment. So that's a big way that English and ASL differ grammatically. If you're wondering how to form sentences in ASL we have a general sentence structure which is time-topic-comment. In English that doesn't matter so much, whether time comes first or whether it comes at the end, because we have those little words like: is, at, in, on. All those signs that don't really exist in ASL. So to avoid having to explain further we put our time at the beginning. So if we have a time word, that could be three o'clock, that could be yesterday, every day, all of those are examples of time words. So whatever your time is in your sentence, you're going to move that to the beginning. Then you're gonna find your topic and then describe it. So verbs and adjectives. Basically you can think of it this way: if you are painting a picture, you had a canvas, you wouldn't throw the color on there first and then go back and outline, but first you would outline and then paint. So really it's the same thing in ASL - we're setting up our objects and then describing it as much as we need to. So here are some examples of using time topic comment. Let's say you were saying you were moving to a big city next year. We would put our time at the beginning so that's, next year. Next year. City would come next because it is our topic. City. Then we'll describe the city, big. I'm moving. So again, next year city big I'm moving. Let's take another sentence. The class was great this morning. This morning is going to be our time. This morning or now morning. Class is your topic and then you describe. Great. So, this morning class great. Our last example- my brother got sick yesterday. So identify your time, that's yesterday. Yesterday. Your topic is my brother, my brother. And then got sick is your comment. Become or got sick. So yesterday my brother got sick. So now let's talk about signing pronouns when you are creating sentences in ASL. So basically the way we do this is by identifying who or what we're talking about first. Once someone is set up whether it's mom, whether it's sister, whether it's your friend, whoever it is, use them in their own sentence or within the same sentence and then point. That would be he, she, they, me, you. This is what we call, indexing. Basically it's using your index finger to point out the individuals who you've already set up. So now what if your sentences need to be in the past or future tense? What do you do? If you're signing normally that means you're automatically signing in the present tense. So we have two signs for past and future. This is past and this is future. So every time we're adding past we can either put it before or after the word that we're trying to make into past tense. So for example, if it was I went to school - I (past) go to school. Or, I am going to school - I go school will (or future). We usually tend to put the will at the end and past can go either before or after. So if you are going to form question sentences your grammar is just a little bit different. Your question words need to go at the end of the sentence. So who what when where why and how are your basic question words. Let's review those: who what when where why how. Now let's give you some examples. Let's say you wanted to ask, where do you live? You would say: you live (or live) where? You live where? Again always putting your question word at the end of your question sentence. Let's talk a little bit about negation in ASL. This might be a new term for you. Basically negation is showing the no, showing the negative in ASL. Instead of saying things like, don't, not, those are not always necessary to sign in ASL. We have a default sign like this but again it's not always necessary. For example, here is the sign, to like. If I wanted to make that, don't like, I wouldn't sign, don't like. I would say don't like - I'm shaking my head, my facial expressions show that it's a negative and I'm also throwing it out. Here's another one. I understand looks like this, I understand. If you want to say, I do not understand - I do not understand. You'll see it's the same exact signs you're just showing that it's a negative with your facial expressions, your body language and of course shaking your head. So sometimes you will come across sentences that are not so simple. They're gonna have a lot more than one time, one topic and one comment. So what do you do? Let's say you have something like a location. Where do you place that? Here's an example. If you don't have a time in your sentence you would replace that with your location word or phrase. So for example if it was, the apple is in the kitchen, I would sign kitchen first because there is no time and then go on to say that there's an apple. But that's just one example; sometimes you have both time topic comment location and more. So when that happens we use a lot of rhetorical questions. So for example, tomorrow I'm going to school why? Or, with who? Or let's say we had two locations. I might say, where? Either way when you confront those times where you have a lot of location words you might want to use your rhetorical questions. This is a more advanced concept so I encourage you to start from the beginning and stay dedicated. What are some common mistakes that beginners make? Sometimes it's just forgetting that time comes first or putting your topic before your comment. It's as simple as that - it's just out of order and it's in English word order. So this is something that we all have to work really hard to do if we're native English speakers because we think in English so naturally the signs are going to want to come out exactly the way we were thinking them. So instead of letting yourself sign English word order, word for word for a word, sit back, take a minute, think about it, find your time or your location, put it at the beginning and then things will be much smoother. Do you have any more questions about word order in ASL? Leave a comment and let us know, and if you enjoyed this video consider subscribing so you can receive more helpful ASL lessons.