How to Sign "Student" in American Sign Language

The short answer

In American Sign Language (ASL), the most widely taught sign for STUDENT combines two parts. The first is the sign LEARN, where your dominant hand lifts something from your other palm up to your forehead. The second is the person marker, where both flat hands move down the front of your body. Together they mean roughly "a person who learns."

The answer depends on which sign language you mean. This guide covers ASL, which is used in the United States and parts of Canada. British Sign Language, Auslan and other national sign languages are separate languages and use different signs for student. Even within ASL, some regions and communities use variations.

Key terms

• Dominant hand: the hand you naturally write with. It does most of the movement.
• Non-dominant hand: your other hand. In this sign it stays mostly still as a base.
• Flat-O handshape: all fingertips and the thumb pressed together so the hand looks like a flattened letter O.
• Person marker (also called the agent marker): two flat hands, palms facing each other, moving downward. Added after a verb, it turns the action into the person who does it.

Step by step: signing STUDENT

Part 1: LEARN

• 1. Hold your non-dominant hand flat in front of your chest, palm facing up, like an open book page.
• 2. Place the fingertips of your dominant hand on that palm, with your dominant fingers open and slightly bent.
• 3. Close your dominant fingers together as you lift the hand off the palm, as if picking up information.
• 4. Bring the closed hand, now in a flat-O shape, up to your forehead, so it ends near or touching the forehead.

Part 2: the person marker

• 5. Open both hands flat, with the fingers together.
• 6. Hold them in front of your upper chest, palms facing each other, about shoulder-width apart.
• 7. Move both hands straight down together to about waist level, keeping the palms facing each other.

Join the two parts smoothly so that the person marker follows LEARN without a long pause. When signed fluently, STUDENT reads as one sign, not two separate words.

How to check you did it right

Practice in front of a mirror and check each point below. Passing these checks means the hand positions and movement order are in place. It does not confirm that your rhythm, size of movement or regional form matches what a fluent signer expects. Only watching fluent signers, or getting feedback from one, can tell you that.

• Your non-dominant palm faces up and stays mostly still during LEARN.
• Your dominant hand starts open on the palm and is closed into a flat-O by the time it reaches your forehead.
• The movement goes upward to the forehead, not to the mouth or chin.
• Both hands in the person marker are flat, with palms facing each other rather than facing your body.
• The person marker moves downward, not outward or forward.
• The whole sign flows as one unit.

Common mistakes

• Stopping after LEARN: without the person marker, the sign means "learn," not "student."
• Ending at the mouth or chin instead of the forehead, which can resemble other signs.
• Turning the person-marker palms toward your chest instead of toward each other.
• Using the TEACH movement by mistake: TEACH plus the person marker means TEACHER, a different word.

Limitations of this guide

This guide was written without any source material, such as a sign-language dictionary entry, video or instructor review. The description reflects the form most commonly taught in ASL, but written steps cannot fully show timing, hand orientation or facial expression. Before using the sign in an important conversation, compare it with a reputable ASL video dictionary or check it with a Deaf signer or certified ASL instructor. If you need the word in a sign language other than ASL, look it up in that language's own resources. Do not assume the ASL form carries over.