Question words Use these signs when asking questions: Vocab: Who What Where When Why How How much How many Which In this video I was slightly over-enthusiastic while signing the first three signs – for ‘who’ it’s usually just one loop, for ‘what’ it’s two shakes of the finger, and for ‘where’ the hands move in and out twice. I did each sign for a bit too long. In Auslan, the grammar is different from English. When asking a question, the W-word goes last. For example, when asking ‘When did you eat?”, you would sign ‘YOU EAT WHEN?’ To ask “Where do you live?” you sign ‘YOU LIVE WHERE?’ You’ll notice in these examples that I have omitted ‘did’ and ‘do’. In Auslan, words such as “and”, “to”, “a”, “the”, “it”, “be”, “are” etc. are not used. Simply delete them from the sentence. Sometimes in Auslan, the W-word goes both first and last. This is known as bracing. E.g. WHO WASH-DISHES WHO? There is no time when the W-word is first, but not last, the way it is in English. For this week, practise asking questions. If you don’t know the signs for the vocab you want to use, fingerspell the words. By fingerspelling words you don’t know, you create a space in your brain for them, so when you learn the sign for that word you will remember it more easily. This video is part of my free online Auslan course. To access the entire course, and additional lessons that are not taught via video, please visit my website, https://helloasphyxia.wordpress.com/ To learn more about what it is really like to be Deaf, details about the Deaf community and how Auslan is used by Deaf people, read my book, Future Girl, https://tinyurl.com/yd27a39k