There isn’t one single sign for “by” in American Sign Language. Because “by” has several different meanings in English, ASL handles each meaning with a different sign or grammatical strategy. The sign you need depends entirely on what you mean: standing near something, meeting a deadline, or crediting an author.
Location: “By” as “Near” or “Beside”
When “by” means next to something, as in “I sat by the window” or “the store by my house,” you use the ASL sign for NEAR. Hold your non-dominant hand flat and horizontal in front of your body, palm facing in. Then bring your dominant hand, also flat and horizontal, from slightly behind your non-dominant hand toward it. Repeat that short forward movement twice. Both palms face inward, and the dominant hand has a slight bend at the fingers.
This sign works for any sentence where “by” could be replaced with “beside,” “next to,” or “close to.” The repeated movement toward the stationary hand visually represents one thing being in proximity to another.
Time: “By” as a Deadline
When “by” refers to a point in time, as in “finish by Friday” or “call me by noon,” ASL uses the sign for DEADLINE. This sign conveys the idea that something must be completed no later than a certain time. You would typically sign the task, then use DEADLINE followed by the specific time or date.
ASL often restructures English time expressions to put the time context first. So “by Friday” in an English sentence might become FRIDAY DEADLINE FINISH in ASL, giving the viewer the time frame before the action. The key is that ASL doesn’t translate the English word “by” directly here. It replaces the concept with a sign that carries the same meaning of a time limit.
Authorship: “By” as Credit or Agent
When “by” indicates who made or did something, as in “a book by Hemingway” or “painted by my sister,” ASL takes a completely different approach. There is no preposition inserted between the object and the creator. Instead, you restructure the sentence.
The most natural ASL construction names the creator and then the creation, or vice versa, without a connecting word. For “a painting by Picasso,” you might sign PICASSO PAINT or THAT PAINTING PICASSO MAKE. The relationship between creator and creation is understood from context and sentence structure rather than from a preposition.
ASL also uses body positioning to show who is doing what in a sentence. A signer can shift their shoulders and torso slightly toward the spatial location they’ve established for a person, with their eye gaze directed in a specific direction, to indicate who performed an action. This body shift replaces the grammatical work that “by” does in English passive sentences like “the cake was made by my mom.” In ASL, you’d set up the person in space and then show the action from their perspective.
Transportation: “By” as Method
When “by” describes how you travel or communicate, as in “by car” or “by email,” ASL simply signs the method itself. You don’t need a word for “by” at all. “I came by bus” becomes something like I RIDE-BUS COME-HERE. The mode of transportation or communication is signed directly, and the “by” is implied.
Why ASL Doesn’t Have a Single “By” Sign
English prepositions like “by” carry a heavy load because one small word covers many unrelated meanings. ASL is a visual-spatial language with its own grammar, not a word-for-word translation of English. It handles each meaning through different signs, sentence structures, or body movements rather than funneling everything through one catch-all word.
In some classroom settings, teachers do fingerspell short English function words like prepositions, but this is more common when teaching English literacy than in everyday ASL conversation. Fingerspelling B-Y would be understood, but it comes across as translating English rather than signing naturally. A fluent signer restructures the sentence so the meaning is clear without needing the preposition at all.
If you’re learning ASL, the practical takeaway is to stop thinking about how to translate “by” and start thinking about what you actually mean. Are you talking about location? Use NEAR. A deadline? Use DEADLINE plus the time. An author or creator? Name the person and the action. Each context has a clean, natural solution that feels far more intuitive than trying to map English grammar onto a visual language.