How do you sign the letter A in BSL?

Name: How do you sign the letter A in BSL?
Uploaded: 2026-08-07T06:30:42.248495+00:00
Description: Hold your passive hand open, palm towards you. With the index finger of your dominant hand, touch the tip of your passive thumb. No movement. A is the 1st letter of the two-handed BSL alphabet.

Hold your passive hand open, palm towards you. With the index finger of your dominant hand, touch the tip of your passive thumb. No movement. A is the 1st letter of the two-handed BSL alphabet.

The sign, demonstrated on video by a Deaf teacher.

The five vowels are the five fingertips of the passive hand, in order: A is the thumb, E the index, I the middle finger, O the ring finger, U the little finger. Learn them as one run.

You will fingerspell A in names like Alfie, Amelia and Arthur and places like Aberdeen and Ashford. Practise it next to B, its neighbours in the alphabet.

Related signs

Letter Y
Letter Z
Letter B
Letter C

You've just learnt a sign.

Anna teaches you the next 500, with step-by-step lessons and Deaf teachers.

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play