How to Sign “What” in American Sign Language (and Make It Clear on Camera)

The short answer

The most common way to sign WHAT in American Sign Language (ASL) uses both hands. Hold your open hands in front of your body with palms facing up and fingers relaxed, then move them slightly side to side or in small outward shakes. While you sign, lower and draw your eyebrows together. That facial expression is part of the sign's meaning in a question, not decoration.

If you were instead asking what ASL is used for, it is a complete visual language with its own grammar, used by many Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the United States and parts of Canada. The rest of this guide covers the sign for the word “what,” which is the more common reason people search this phrase.

How the sign works in a sentence

In ASL, questions that ask for information, such as who, what, where, when, why and how, are often called wh-questions. They are marked by non-manual signals, meaning grammar carried by the face and head rather than the hands. For WHAT, that usually means lowered, slightly squeezed eyebrows and sometimes a small forward tilt of the head, held for the length of the question.

WHAT frequently appears at the end of a question rather than the beginning. For example, a question like “What is your name?” is often signed in the order YOUR NAME WHAT, with the questioning expression across the sentence. Word order can vary, so treat this as a common pattern rather than a fixed rule.

There is also a variant in which the index finger of your dominant hand brushes downward across the open palm of your other hand. Signing, like speech, varies by region, age and community, so you may see either form. The informal greeting often glossed as WHAT'S UP is a separate sign and should not be substituted for WHAT.

Step by step: signing WHAT

• 1. Relax your shoulders and bring both hands in front of your chest or stomach, a comfortable distance from your body.
• 2. Open your hands with palms facing up and fingers loosely spread or relaxed, not stiff.
• 3. Make a small side-to-side or outward shaking movement. Keep it modest; large, sweeping motions are not needed.
• 4. At the same time, lower and pull your eyebrows together, as if puzzled or asking.
• 5. Hold the expression until the question is finished, then relax your face and hands.

How to check yourself: watch your movement in a mirror or a camera preview. The sign should show both palms clearly facing up, a small repeated movement, and a visible change in your eyebrows. If your face looks neutral, the question marking is missing, and a viewer may read the sign as a statement or as unclear.

A mirror or self-check confirms the shape and movement you intended, but it cannot confirm that the form is natural or matches local usage. For that, compare against a reputable ASL video dictionary or ask a Deaf ASL instructor or fluent signer for feedback. No specific dictionary or course was supplied for this article, so choose a source that shows the sign on video, ideally produced by Deaf signers.

Making your signing readable on a video call

Because WHAT depends on both hands and your face, a camera setup that crops your hands or darkens your face can make the sign hard to read even if you produce it correctly. These checks focus on what the other person can actually see.

• 1. Framing: position the camera so the frame shows roughly from the top of your head to your waist, with space on both sides for your hands. Your hands should stay in frame throughout the movement.
• 2. Lighting: light your face from the front or slightly to the side. A bright window or lamp behind you can turn your face into a silhouette and hide your eyebrows.
• 3. Physical background: a plain wall or surface that contrasts with your skin tone makes hand shapes easier to follow than a busy or patterned area.
• 4. Clothing: a solid top that contrasts with your hands tends to read more clearly than strong patterns.
• 5. Virtual effects: virtual backgrounds and background blur in call apps work by separating you from your surroundings, and moving hands can be partly blurred, clipped or flickered at the edges. If you rely on these effects, test them while signing, or turn them off and use a plain physical background instead.

Many call apps mirror your self-view by default, so your dominant hand may appear on the opposite side from what other participants see. This does not change what they receive, but it can be confusing when you compare yourself with a video dictionary.

How to verify it looks right

• 1. Open your camera preview and sign WHAT a few times. Success check: both hands stay fully in frame and your eyebrows are visibly lowered.
• 2. Record a short practice clip with your camera app and play it back. Success check: you can see the palm orientation and the small movement without pausing.
• 3. Make a test call with a friend or colleague and sign the same question. Success check: they can tell it is a question and identify the sign.

Each step tests something different. The preview confirms the camera is capturing you and that your framing and lighting work. A recording shows how the movement looks at your camera's capture quality. Only a live call shows what the other person receives after the connection compresses the video, which can blur fast hand motion. If the live call looks smeared while your local recording looks clear, the limit is likely the connection or app quality rather than your signing or camera, and slowing your movement slightly or improving the connection is a reasonable next step.

Limits of this guide

This article describes the commonly taught form of WHAT and one widely seen variant, based on general knowledge rather than supplied reference material. It does not cover every regional variant or the finer grammar of ASL questions. Learning from Deaf instructors and video sources remains the most reliable way to confirm usage and build fluency.