Signing Savvy, Your Sign Language Resource

Sing it or sign it, either way the Beatles knew what they were talking about when they said, "All You Need is Love!"

We thought it would be appropriate with Valentine’s Day coming up to share our article explaining how to sign "I love you" and how to sign love for people.

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Many people know and use the sign for I LOVE YOU. This sign is used universally throughout the country and the world. We see it all over television, at sporting events and during "shout outs" to our mothers. The sign is actually the combination of the fingerspelled letters I, L and Y.

I have had people ask why the sign looks similar to the one that some people hold up at rock concerts, where the thumb is held down and the pointer finger and the little finger are held up. It is NOT the same. Remember, the thumb of the Y hand has to be present in order for you to be signing the I LOVE YOU sign.

Another sign that gets confused with the I LOVE YOU sign is the Hawaiian "shaka" sign meaning aloha, hang loose, or right on. Interestingly, this is also the ASL sign for YELLOW. Again, this is a different sign, as it leaves out the pointer finger. It is basically just shaking the Y hand.

Remember, the sign for I LOVE YOU uses the ILY handshape.

You can also sign the individual signs I + LOVE + YOU.

As you can see in the example signing the individual signs I + LOVE + YOU, the sign for LOVE is both arms folded across the chest.

There is more than one way to sign LOVE depending on the meaning. This type of love means to show love or have love. This sign is what you use when talking about loving a person. Here are a few more examples of using the sign in context.

I hope that clears up some of your LOVE issues! Spread the LOVE, and Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us here at Signing Savvy!

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published February 12, 2012. It was updated with new graphics and edits on February 14, 2019. It was updated again with additional sentence examples on February 12, 2025.