Some nouns and verbs in American Sign Language (ASL) share the same handshapes. You distinguish the part of speech by signing the motion once if it’s a verb and twice if it’s a noun. Although most nouns don’t have a verb that looks the same, all but a few nouns need the double motion.
This table includes a few common noun and verb pairs.
The following examples compare the noun/verb differences:
English: Please sit in this chair.
Sign: THIS CHAIR (point) — PLEASE — SIT
English: I like to fly small planes.
Sign: SMALL PLANES — FLY — LIKE ME
