To sign 'what do you mean', hold both hands in front of you with your palms facing up and fingers spread apart. Move your hands slightly side to side. It is essential to furrow your eyebrows and tilt your head slightly forward, as this facial expression conveys the questioning nature of the phrase.
Sign 'I DON'T UNDERSTAND', then transition into 'what do you mean' by opening your hands and furrowing your eyebrows to show confusion.
You can point to the person or the object in question, then use this sign while maintaining a strong questioning facial expression.
After signing that the party is canceled, use this sign to ask for clarification, making sure your eyebrows are furrowed.
Sign 'I DON'T UNDERSTAND', then transition into 'what do you mean' by opening your hands and furrowing your eyebrows to show confusion.
You can point to the person or the object in question, then use this sign while maintaining a strong questioning facial expression.
After signing that the party is canceled, use this sign to ask for clarification, making sure your eyebrows are furrowed.
Yes, the hand movements are the same as the common sign for 'WHAT'. The translation to 'what do you mean' comes from the conversational context and the intensity of your confused facial expression.
In ASL, furrowing your eyebrows is a grammatical requirement for 'wh-' questions (who, what, where, when, why). It signals to the other person that you are asking a question that requires more than a yes or no answer.
You can sign 'MEAN WHAT', but the open-handed 'WHAT' with a confused expression shown here is a very natural and widely used way to ask someone to clarify what they just said.
