why are these two sentences signed differently?

TripleA+++

Member

12/21/2025

2 Comments

Hello, I'm so excited to learn asl.

I have been using this app for a short while, and I noticed something that I find confusing.

There are two sentences you learn in this app, one of them is a video for you to translate, and the other is were you have to put the the signs together to make a sentences.

So- the video is saying " my father likes meat. "

And the other part- is were you have to put the signs together to say:

" my brother likes bacon. "

This part is supposed to be signed " Bacon,‐my brother likes "

Bacon it the topic, so it's signed first.

Okay... but then I watch the video. I understand all the signs, but I notice the woman signs " My Father " first..

So what makes these two different?

Why is the Father the main topic sign, but not the brother

I hope this make sense, sorry this was long.

I'm just struggling with grammar and structure. I think I have a hard time knowing g if the person should be signed first or the verb

Discussion (2)

Ian

12/22/2025

i guess either could be the subject. I am not an expert, deaf or anything. So this is just theory, but ASL may be flexible enough rules-wise that both can be correct grammar but coming for a speaking/hearing background we are used to a specific order being correct. so we need to expand our minds and accept different word orders in sign language to ge able to understand it. I would love to get feedback on this from someone who actually knows.

Abbie

1/19/2026

I've been wondering the exact same thing. In spoken English, different clauses of a sentence can be moved around and still make sense (i.e. different clauses of a sentence can be moved around and still make sense in spoken English.) But only certain ones, and if you're not native speaking, or surrounded by fluent speakers, you have to learn the technical way. I don't know if it's looser in ASL or not. I would love some lessons specifically on grammar and syntax, but those sorts of things are much harder to teach.

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