Using lao is a great way to start connecting thoughts at the beginner stage and beyond. Up until now we can say things like “I am not hungry. I am thirsty.” With lao we can start to string together our basic sentences into more complete thoughts with sentences like “I am not hungry, but I am thirsty.”

As a beginner, I like incorporating lao into my sentences because it helps me to express basic thoughts that are less clunky. We can easily use everything from Lessons 01 – 04 to create basic sentences that we can use, such as these:

Chamorro	English
Ti tinane’ yu’ lao yayas yu’.	I am not busy, but I am tired.
Ti gof ñålang gue’, lao gof må’o gue’.	She is not very hungry, but she is very thirsty.
Etigo’ siha, lao gof metgot siha.	They (2) are short but strong.
Ti enfetmera yu’ lao mediku yu’.	I am not a nurse, but I am a doctor.
Ti empottånte gue’, lao gof interesånte gue’.	It is not important, but it is very interesting.
Gof maolek gue’ lao ti gof guaguan gue’.	It is good but not very expensive.

For this post I’m limiting the use of lao to the sentences we’ve already covered in lessons 1-4 but we’ll be using lao as we move forward.