This lesson is part of the Beginner Chamorro learning path.

Now it’s time to create more complex descriptions by describing nouns with adjectives, so we can say things like The child is tired or The woman is happy. We can also describe nouns with other nouns with sentences like The man is a teacher or The teacher is a singer. To make these types of sentences in Chamorro, we need to understand how the word order differs from English. We will also learn the article i and its accompanying vowel harmony rules, which dictate how sounds change to make our speech smoother. This post includes explanatory notes for these concepts, practice drills for vowel harmony, Chamorro sentences, English translations, audio pronunciations, and a Quizlet Deck for additional practice. Happy studying!

Contents

1. Describing People and Things in Chamorro
   1. Word Order
   2. The Article “i”
   3. Vowel Harmony
2. How to say “The Village”
3. How to Say “The Woman is Happy”
4. How to Say “The Woman is a Worker”
5. More Practice Drills
6. Building an Intuition for Vowel Harmony
7. Summary
8. 💡Make Your Own Sentences
9. 📝 Study Resource: Quizlet Flashcards
10. ➡️ Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson
11. Documentation & Further Study
    1. Notes
    2. References
    3. Further Reading

Describing People and Things in Chamorro

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe people and things using simple sentences. We’ll focus on expressions like:

• “The woman is tall.”
• “The dog is small.”
• “The coffee is hot.”

To build sentences like these in Chamorro, we’ll look at three important ideas:

• Word Order: How the parts of the sentence are arranged
• The Article i: A small but important word used before names of people and things
• Vowel Harmony Rules: Sound patterns that help words flow naturally together

Now that you have an overview of what this lesson covers, let’s begin by looking at how these sentences are ordered in Chamorro.

Word Order

In this sentence type, the descriptor comes before the noun being described. This is the opposite of English, where the noun being described comes first. In English we would say “The woman is tall” but in Chamorro the literal word order would be “Tall is the woman.”

Since the word order is the opposite of English, this may feel challenging at first. But with practice, this word order will stick and become more intuitive.

The Article “i”

These basic sentences use The Article “i” which we can loosely translate to mean “the” in Chamorro. In these sentences, it will be used to link the descriptor with whatever we are describing.

Vowel Harmony

The final key concept for making these types of sentences is known as Vowel Harmony. It is probably one of the most important and pretty features of Chamorro, but it can also be challenging to learn and get used to. But trust me, it gets easier over time with consistent practice and language exposure.

So what is vowel harmony? Essentially, it refers to the fact that the pronunciation of a word will change depending on the words that are around it. Chamorro actually has many different types of vowel harmony, and a great way to get started is learning the sound changes associated with the article “i”.

When the “i” sound is in front of a word, the first vowel in that word changes for specific vowels. Those specific vowels and their sound change rules are below:

Rule	Root Word	Vowel Harmony
å changes to a	tåsi	i tasi
o changes to e	to’lang	i te’lang
u changes to i	guma’	i gima’

📝Vowel harmony does not typically apply to loanwords. So for the word flores, even though it has an “o” as its first vowel, we would not change it to i fleres. Instead, most Chamorus would just say i flores.

In the next few sections, we’ll practice applying these vowel harmony changes.

How to say “The Village”

Now that we’ve learned the rules for vowel harmony, let’s practice applying them to actual words. We’ll practice this pattern:

i + Noun

March 2026 Note: Audio is forthcoming! Sorry for the confusion!

Root Word	Vowel Harmonized
pugas	i pigas
hula’	i hila’
chugo’	i chigo’
mutong	i mitong
chupa	i chipa
songsong	i sengsong
donne’	i denne’
chopchop	i chepchop
chomchom	i chemchom
chotda’	i chetda’
påtgon	i patgon
låhi	i lahi
må‘pos	i ma‘pos
dågan	i dagan
gåmson	i gamson

How to Say “The Woman is Happy”

To get started with these more complex descriptions involving nouns and adjectives, we can use the following basic sentence structures. To describe nouns with adjectives to say sentences like “The child is tired” use the following structure:

Adjective + i + Noun

Note that the adjective comes first, followed by the noun. To learn this pattern, let’s describe different nouns with the word magof. Let’s practice with the sentences in the table below:

March 2026 Note: Audio is forthcoming! Sorry for the confusion!

Noun	Chamoru	English
neni	magof i neni	the baby is happy
palao’an	magof i palao’an	the woman is happy
ga’lågu	magof i ga’lågu	the dog is happy
fafa’någue	magof i fafa’någue	the teacher is happy
paluma	magof i paluma	the bird is happy

How to Say “The Woman is a Worker”

Then to describe nouns with nouns so we can say sentences like “The mother is a teacher”, use this structure:

Noun + i + Noun

In this structure, the noun acting as the descriptor comes first, followed by the noun being described. Let’s practice this pattern by describing the word palao’an in the table below:

March 2026 Note: Audio is forthcoming! Sorry for the confusion!

Noun	Chamoru	English
fafa’cho’cho’	fáfa’cho’cho’ i palao’an	the woman is a worker
nåna	nåna i palao’an	the woman is a mother
tiha	tiha i palao’an	the woman is an aunt
fafa’någue	fafa’någue i palao’an	the woman is a teacher
fáfalågu	fáfalågu i palao’an	the woman is a runner

More Practice Drills

Now let’s practice vowel harmony with some simple sentences. In addition to heling us practice vowel harmony, I think this simple sentence structure is great for building our vocabulary. We can look at everything around us and start describing them. This also helps us make sentences that are immediately relevant to our lives.

[Adjective or Noun] + i + Noun

Chamorro	English
Makkat i lamasa.	The table is heavy.
Mañaña i magågu.	The clothing is soft.
Applacha’ i platu.	The plate is dirty.
Kadada i estoria.	The story is short.
Maipe i kadu.	The soup is hot.
Manengheng i kafe.	The coffee is cold.
Yayas i fafa’na’gue’.	The teacher is tired.
Betde i franela.	The t-shirt is green.
Ñålang i patgon.	The child is hungry.
Pika i nengkånno.	The food is spicy.
Guaguan i sapåtos.	The shoes are expensive.
Måtai i tilifon.	The phone is dead.
Mappot i che’cho’.	The work is difficult.
Kakånta i palao’an.	The woman is a singer.
Matuhok i pale’.	The priest is sleepy.
Matatnga i taotao guafi.	The fire fighter is fearless.
Bråbu i fafalågu.	The runner is healthy.
Pulitikåt i lahi.	The man is a politician.
Susiadot i palao’an.	The woman is a social worker.
Estudiante i patgon.	The child is a student.

In the next section, we’ll discuss how to build an intuition for Chamorro vowel harmony, as this feature of Chamorro may feel confusing for English speakers.

Building an Intuition for Vowel Harmony

To understand vowel harmony, try not to think of it as a grammar rule. Instead, recognize that it is tied to how we physically produce sounds. Specifically, it is linked to where certain vowels actually sit in our mouth and face.

The Chamorro vowels å, o, and u, are produced more in the back of the mouth.¹

In the table below, say each word slowly. Elongate the sound of the underlined portion and try to feel how the vowel seems to stretch to the back of your mouth:

Vowel	Equivalent Sounds
å	cough, bought, saw, thaw
o	boat, throw, snow, tote
u	soup, troupe, coup, true

Conversely, the Chamorro vowels a, e, and i are more in the front of the mouth,² almost like they are sitting directly behind our front teeth.

Do the same pronunciation exercise with the words below. Elongate the underlined portion and don’t be afraid to exaggerate your mouth shape as you make the sounds:

Vowel	Equivalent Sounds
a	trap, clap, lance, trash
e	sled, tread, fed, led
i	ski, meat, teeth, screech

So what? Why does vowel placement matter?

From a physical standpoint, constantly shifting sounds between the back and front of your mouth takes extra effort and slows down speech. Chamorro vowel harmony reduces this effort by adjusting vowels so they are produced in a similar area of the mouth, allowing words to flow more smoothly.

At first, this may not seem important. Saying i tåsi might not feel noticeably easier or harder than saying i tasi when you look at a single phrase on its own.

However, the difference becomes clear in longer stretches of natural speech. Chamorro is often spoken quickly and rhythmically, with a flowing, musical “down-up” pattern. Speaking this way requires minimizing friction in the mouth, and vowel harmony makes that possible.

Without vowel harmony, producing smooth, rapid, and musical speech becomes much more difficult. This friction becomes even more noticeable as you begin using more complex word forms that don’t exist in English. Vowel harmony also eases the pronunciation of these longer, more complex words by changing the vowels, allowing sounds to flow more comfortably.

Summary

In this lesson we’ve learned how to make basic sentences to describe others, such as “The woman is happy” or “The woman is tall.” We’ve learned about the basic word order, the article “i”, and how to apply basic vowel harmony rules when using the article “i”.

💡Make Your Own Sentences

We have practiced with different phrase and sentence drills in this lesson, but if you want to make your own practice sentences make sure to reference my list of 100 Adjectives in Chamorro and People Vocabulary Lists to build your own drills that are meaningful to you and your life.

📝 Study Resource: Quizlet Flashcards

To keep practicing with the example sentences in this lesson, use this Quizlet Deck as a supplementary tool.

➡️ Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

When you are ready for the next lesson, click the link below to learn how to turn our sentences into negative statements like I am not hungry. I am not thirsty.

How to Say “Not” in Chamorro – From “I Am Thirsty” to “I Am Not Thirsty”

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Documentation & Further Study

Notes

1. Donald M. Topping, Chamorro Reference Grammar (University of Hawaii Press, 1973), 51. ↩︎
2. Donald M. Topping, Chamorro Reference Grammar (University of Hawaii Press, 1973), 51. ↩︎

References

Topping, D. M., & Dungca, B. C. Chamorro Reference Grammar (PALI Language Texts―Micronesia). University of Hawaii Press, 1973.

Further Reading

Topping, D. M., & Dungca, B. C. “Vowel Fronting.” In Chamorro Reference Grammar, 52-53. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1973.