How British Sign Language Builds Words And Phrases

British sign language (BSL) is used by around 100,000 people in the UK. It is the most popular sign language used in the country, and officially recognised by the government. Its popularity is due largely to its unique way of constructing sentences and words, which differs compared to spoken English.

BSL is its own language, it uses its own grammar and sentence construction. For example, when asking someone in BSL “What is your name?”, you would sign, “Your name, what?”. BSL also uses finger spelling gestures to sign letters. These are often used when there is no particular sign for a word, such as when spelling out an address or name.

In a similar way to most spoken languages there are regional variations to BSL with certain regions in the UK using different signs for the same phrases. Men and women usually have different dialects when using BSL too, although when compared to spoken English they are less distinct.