Family & Relationship Signs
Learn signs for family members, discuss relationships, and discover how to teach your family to sign too.
Family Member Signs
Learning signs for family members is one of the most practical and personal parts of BSL. Start with the core family: mum, dad, brother, sister, son, daughter, grandparent, and baby.
Extended family signs like aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, and nephew help you describe your wider family network. These signs often follow logical patterns in BSL, making them easier to remember once you learn a few.
Signs for partner, husband, wife, boyfriend, and girlfriend allow you to talk about your personal relationships. BSL has clear, respectful signs for all types of relationships and family structures.
If you have pets, learn the signs for common animals too — dog, cat, fish, rabbit. Pets are family for many people, and being able to talk about them makes conversations more personal and fun.
Discussing Relationships
Being able to describe your relationships and feelings about family is an important part of communication. Learn signs for love, close, argue, support, and together to express the dynamics within your family.
BSL allows you to talk about relationship milestones — meeting someone, getting engaged, getting married, having children, or going through a separation. These signs help you share your life story with others.
Discussing family can bring up complex emotions. Having the vocabulary to express feelings like 'We are close,' 'It is complicated,' or 'I miss them' allows for more authentic and meaningful conversations.
If you are part of a blended family, foster family, or chosen family, BSL has ways to describe these relationships too. The Deaf community values all types of family bonds and has vocabulary to reflect this.
Home Life Vocabulary
Signs for rooms and household items help you describe your living space and daily routines. Learn vocabulary for kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, garden, and common objects like table, chair, and bed.
Being able to sign about household activities — cooking, cleaning, shopping, gardening — makes everyday conversations more natural. These practical signs are among the most frequently used in casual BSL.
Learn signs for meals and mealtimes. Being able to discuss breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacking is a natural part of family life. Pair these with food vocabulary for richer conversations.
Signs related to home safety and rules can be especially useful if you have children. Being able to communicate about bedtime, homework, screen time, and chores in BSL helps create an inclusive home environment.
Teaching Family Members to Sign
If you are learning BSL, encouraging your family members to learn too creates a supportive signing environment at home. Start by teaching them a few basic signs and gradually build up your shared vocabulary.
Make learning fun by using signs during everyday activities. Sign the names of foods during meals, practise animal signs while watching nature programmes, or sign colours and numbers during play.
Children often pick up signs very quickly and can be enthusiastic learning partners. Making signing a family activity normalises it and ensures everyone can participate in communication.
Be patient with family members who find it challenging. Learning a new language is hard for everyone, and some people may feel self-conscious at first. Encourage and praise their efforts, just as you would want your own efforts praised.