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GOOD HEAVENS: The American Sign Language (ASL) sign for "good heavens! / good grief! / my goodness / goodness gracious"
 

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A student asks:

 

How do you sign "Good heavens!"?

 

Answer:

 

"Good Heavens!" is a general interjection in English often used to express a sense of annoyed surprise but it can mean other things as well depending on context and intonation.
If you were to sign "good" and "heaven" in ASL it would not express annoyed surprise nor any of the other typical emotions which English uses the term "good heavens" to convey.
 

 

Instead you would use a sign that matches your feelings and the situation.
 

 

Here are a few ideas or options:

 

OMG-[Oh-My-God!]-[version-of-TERRIBLE]

Oh no!-[Oh my!]

 

Argh!-[Oh crap!]

 

Amazing-[WOW]

 

WOAH!-[oh wow!/holy cow/holy crap/oooh!]

 

#WOW!-[lexicalized-fingerspelling]

 

WOW

 

Awe / awed / CHIN-DROP / astonished / amazed / awestruck

 

Awe / awed / open-mouthed / astonished / dumb-founded / awestruck

 

Astounded / astonish / brain-FREEZE / mentally-shocked

 

AMAZED-[nd-1-hand/dh-S-version] / head knocked back / knocked me for a loop

 

... and many others.

 

 

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