ASL Alphabet
A written reference to the 26 handshapes of the American manual alphabet, digit by digit.
This is a written reference: each entry states what every digit does rather than showing a drawing of the hand. Handshapes are best learned by watching a signer, and a diagram that is slightly off teaches the wrong shape — so the page describes rather than depicts.
Showing 26 of 26.
A closed fist with the thumb straight up alongside the index finger, not across it.
Palm facing out · easily confused with S, T
Fingers straight and pressed together, thumb folded flat across the palm.
Palm facing out
The whole hand curved into the shape of a C, thumb and fingers apart.
Palm facing sideways · easily confused with O
Index straight up; middle, ring and pinky curl down to meet the thumb.
Palm facing out · easily confused with F
Fingertips curl down to rest on the thumb, which lies across the palm.
Palm facing out
Thumb and index touch to form a circle; the other three stand straight up.
Palm facing out · easily confused with D
Index and thumb extended parallel to each other, a short gap between them.
Hand turned so they point sideways · easily confused with Q
Index and middle extended together, held flat.
Hand turned so they point sideways · easily confused with U
Pinky straight up, everything else closed into a fist.
Palm facing out · easily confused with J
Start in the I handshape, then trace the shape of a J in the air with the pinky.
Palm facing out, then rotating · easily confused with I
Index and middle form a V; the thumb rests against the middle finger, between the two.
Fingers pointing up · easily confused with P, V
Index straight up and thumb straight out, making a right angle.
Palm facing out
Thumb tucked under three fingers — index, middle and ring fold over it.
Palm facing out · easily confused with N, S
Thumb tucked under two fingers — index and middle fold over it.
Palm facing out · easily confused with M, T
All the fingers curve round to meet the thumb, forming a closed O.
Palm facing out · easily confused with C
The K handshape rotated so the index and middle point downward.
Fingers pointing down · easily confused with K
The G handshape rotated so the index and thumb point downward.
Fingers pointing down · easily confused with G
Index and middle crossed over one another, pointing up.
Palm facing out · easily confused with U, V
A closed fist with the thumb across the front of the folded fingers.
Palm facing out · easily confused with A, T, M
Thumb tucked between the index and middle fingers.
Palm facing out · easily confused with A, S, N
Index and middle straight up and held together, touching along their length.
Palm facing out · easily confused with V, R, H
Index and middle straight up and spread apart into a V.
Palm facing out · easily confused with U, K
Index, middle and ring straight up and spread apart; thumb holds the pinky down.
Palm facing out
Index bent into a hook, everything else closed into a fist.
Palm facing out
Thumb and pinky extended in opposite directions, the three middle fingers closed.
Palm facing out
Index extended, tracing the shape of a Z in the air.
Palm facing out, index leading
The American manual alphabet spells out words letter by letter with one hand. Twenty-four of the 26 letters are held still; only J and Z involve movement, traced in the air. Fingerspelling is used for names, places and words with no established sign.
What this page is, and what it is not
This is a written reference. For each letter it states what the thumb and each finger do, which way the palm faces, and which other letters are easy to mistake it for. It deliberately does not include drawings of hands, because a handshape illustration that is slightly wrong teaches a slightly wrong shape — and unlike a mis-drawn letter of the Latin alphabet, that error is not self-correcting when you use it with a person.
So treat this as something to read alongside watching a signer, not as a substitute for one. The descriptions are precise enough to check yourself against once you have seen the shape, and to distinguish the pairs that look alike, which is what a written reference is genuinely good for.
Fingerspelling is a small part of a full language
American Sign Language is a complete language with its own grammar, spatial syntax and vocabulary — it is not English rendered on the hands, and it is not universal: British Sign Language uses a two-handed alphabet and is mutually unintelligible with ASL. The manual alphabet is the narrow part used for proper nouns, technical terms, initialisms and words that have no established sign.
- 1 Start with the letters that look like their shape. C, L, O and V physically resemble the written letter, so they anchor quickly.
- 2 Then take the closed-fist group together. A, S, T, M and N are all fists differing only in where the thumb sits — learning them as a set is faster than one at a time.
- 3 Separate the pairs that differ by one detail. U and V differ by whether the two fingers touch; K and P and G and Q differ only in which way the hand points.
- 4 Learn J and Z last. They are the only two that need movement, so they behave differently from everything else.
- 5 Practise reading before producing. Recognising fingerspelling at speed is harder than forming it, and it is the skill an actual conversation demands.
The groups worth learning together
Most errors come from within these clusters rather than across them.
| Group | Letters | What separates them |
|---|---|---|
| Closed fists | A, S, T, M, N, E | Where the thumb sits relative to the fingers |
| One finger up | D, I, X, Z | Which finger, and whether it is straight or hooked |
| Two fingers up | U, V, R, K, H | Together, apart, crossed, or with the thumb between |
| Rotated pairs | K and P, G and Q | Only the direction the hand points |
| Circles | O, C, F, D | Which fingers meet the thumb, and how closed the shape is |
| Need movement | J, Z | Everything else is held still |
What matters beyond the shapes
Fluent fingerspelling is not a sequence of held poses. The hand stays in one comfortable position near the shoulder rather than bouncing letter to letter, the shapes flow into one another, and double letters are usually marked by a small slide or bounce rather than by forming the shape twice. Reading is done by the shape of the whole word, much as reading print does not proceed letter by letter.
A note on terminology and respect: Deaf with a capital D refers to the cultural and linguistic community, lowercase deaf to audiological status. If you are learning to communicate with Deaf people rather than to pass a class, learning from Deaf teachers and Deaf-produced material matters more than any chart — including this one.