Signing Savvy, Your Sign Language Resource

In this series of articles, I discuss how to sign dates in American Sign Language. In this article, I bring it all together and discuss how to sign the month, day, and year together, aka the full date.

To sign a full date that includes a month, day, and year:

1. First, sign the month.
   
   If you need help signing the month, see the article Signing Dates – Signing Months for more information.
    
2. Then, the number for the day of the month. 
   
   The dates 1-9 are signed with a twist. The dates 10 and up are simply signed using the number. See the article Signing Dates – Signing the Day of the Month for more information.
    
3. Then, the sign "YEAR".
   
   See the sign for YEAR.
    
4. Then, the numbers for the year.

   
   To sign years, you sign how you would say them, shifting your hand slightly away from your body as you sign each set of numbers. See the article Signing Dates – Signing Years for more information. 

Examples of Signing Full Dates

June 12, 2004:

• 
Sign Description: JUNE (J-U-N-E) + 12 + YEAR + 2-0-0-4

June 12, 2004 (another way):

• 
Sign Description: JUNE (J-U-N-E) + 12 + YEAR + 20 + 04

October 30, 1971

• 
Sign Description: OCTOBER (O-C-T) + 30 + YEAR + 19 + 71

December 16, 1937:

• 
Sign Description: DECEMBER (D-E-C) + 16 + YEAR + 19 + 37

Adding the Day of the Week

If you want to add the name of the day of the week to your full date, such as:

Sunday, January 1, 2012

You simply add the name of the day first. So in the case of the example, you would sign:

SUNDAY, JANUARY (J-A-N) 1 + YEAR + 20 + 12.

If you need help signing the day of the week, see the article Signing Dates – Signing the Day of the Week for more information.