How do you sign an if-would sentence in ASL?

Answer 1

This would greatly depend on the context of the sentence or the setting in which this took place. Words such as "if" and "would" may be omitted or juxtaposed with another sign in ASL.

The sign for if, is a finger-spelled "if"; which varies in direction depending on the location of the next word. "Would" is typically signed with a finger spelled w-d slightly below the chin or at or slightly below chest level.

For example consider "If I wanted that I would have bought it." In a sentence of this type, the "if" may be the only word used between the two words "if" and "would" {If [omitting the 'I' pronoun if the person being discussed is understood"] wanted [point to object] [omitting the 'I' again if the person being discussed is understood"] bought [possibly ommitting the "it"; or pointing to the object, or a generalized "there" or a mimed pointing sign for the word "it"}

Consider "If a cat came in my house, I would scream." In ASL "If cat come house mine, me scream."

Now consider: "If the Canadians attacked the U.S. would the U.S. be ready for an invasion." (Depending on the setting the "would" may be used here, because of the prevalance of importance. For example if this was said between friends it may look like this: "If Canada attack U-S {pause} U-S (or 'we', or 'they' sign) {possibly omitting 'be'}ready for invade {question mark sign, or questioning mimed gesture.} However, if this was in the President's Office at the White House being interpreted for a deaf government official it may look more like this: If Canada attack (or bomb) {the America melting pot sign} 'would' 'we' or 'military' {possibly using U-S before 'military' or replacing 'military' with the 'nation' sign} {possibly ommitting 'be'} ready {omitting 'to} fight {possibly replacing 'fight' with 'retaliate'} {then questioning Stare, rather than questioning mime sign.}

More often than not, however, the 'would' is omitted in these types of sentence whearas the 'if' remains.

But, supposing I said "I would like to go to the game tommorrow." it may look more like this: "I would like go game tommorow."

Answer 2

In American Sign Language (ASL), you can sign an if-would sentence by first signing 'if', then using the facial expression or body movement to indicate 'would'. For example, "If I go to the store, I would buy some food" would be signed as "STORE I GO, FOOD BUY" with the facial expression or body movement reflecting 'would'.