Part of the difficulty in learning American Sign Language is people start with vocabulary and often find themselves asking again “How do you sign this?”

It seems to me it helps to learn phrases so you can reinforce multiple signs in your head until you realize you can mix up the various ASL vocabulary to sign other phrases.  It is the same concept when learning new vocabulary in English.  Remember how your teacher would ask you “What is the defination of this word?”  And you would reply then your teacher would say, “Use it in a sentence.”

That’s what I am saying.

The American Sign Language Phrase Book by Lou Fant and Betty Miller is a good starting point to learn basic conversational sign phrases because you will learn multiple signs. 

I would recommend this book in addition to  The Gallaudet Dictionary of American Sign Language by Clayton Valli, Peggy Lott, Daniel Renner, and Robert Hills so you can learn more signs and use the new vocabulary from the dictionary and replace the words in your phrases.