Hand Shapes
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American Sign Language is a language that is communicated with the hands. When signing, the dominant hand does most of the work. It typically comes naturally to people to sign with their dominant hand. When the sign involves two hands, the dominant hand does the majority of the work, while the non-dominant hand is the more passive component of the sign.
Most signs are a combination of the handshapes pictured below and are used in different motions and in different forms. For example, the sign for the color brown, is a “B” handshape lightly pulled down the cheek of the signer.
Here are some different handshapes that are commonly used in American Sign Language to create signs: