How to sign “Hard” in ASL
The BSL sign for “Hard” isn't in our dictionary yet — it will be fingerspelled in BSL mode, never replaced with this ASL sign.
Step by step
- Bend the index and middle fingers of both hands downward at the knuckles, keeping the other fingers folded down.
- Hold your non-dominant bent-V hand still in front of your chest without moving it.
- Sweep your dominant bent-V hand downward and past the non-dominant hand in one motion.
- Keep the base hand frozen as the base; only the dominant hand does the moving.
- Some signers use a palm-down S hand as the base while the dominant bent-V hand strikes a glancing blow off its top.
Practice tip
Lifeprint glosses this production HARD, tough, and difficult; for hard-as-in-a-rock use the separate sign SOLID instead.
Fingerspell “Hard”
Letter by letter — a handy backup if you forget the sign above. This is not the sign itself.
Text-based guide researched from established ASL references (Lifeprint, university and public-health materials) and rewritten in original words. Signer-created photos and videos are a planned future upgrade.