can you move your index finger without moving your thumb

You therefore have to be very careful how you gesture when you ask for “two stamps” in the UK.

In the UK, two fingers up in a V shape with the back of your hand towards the other person (“the V sign”) is almost as bad an insult as the middle finger. “Right” and “Left” below always mean for the person doing the gesture (not for the person viewing it). Another article called “British body language” on the more general topics of UK-style handshakes, physical displays of affection, bodily contact, proximity etc will also be available from September 2016.Īll explanations below are for right-handed people, but there is no taboo against using the left hand in Britain, so all of them can be done with that hand instead without changing the meaning. Because those kinds of gestures are difficult to explain without offending some people, they have been put into another article called “Offensive, insulting and aggressive gestures in the UK”. Perhaps the most troublesome British gestures are insulting ones like “the V sign” and “the middle finger”. They are explained below in approximate order of how tricky they can be for foreigners.

The British are hardly famous for using their body much during communication, so you might be surprised that this article has well over 50 gestures that British people use – and that’s without the rude ones! Many of the gestures are borrowed from other places and/ or widely used in other countries, but none of them are universal and there are a few which are very rare outside the UK.

Can you move your index finger without moving your thumb