This post is part of our 50 lesson Beginner Chamorro learning path.

In this lesson, we’re going one step further in how we describe people and things in Chamorro. So far, we’ve practiced sentences like “I am hungry” and “I am a student” — where the description and the noun are separate. Now, we’ll learn how to combine descriptions and nouns to create phrases like “good student” or “happy woman.” To do this, we’ll use a small word called “na”, which acts like a connector or linker. Once we’ve learned how to build these descriptive phrases, we’ll put them into full sentences to talk about ourselves and others — like “I am a good student” or “You are a happy woman“.

This post includes lesson notes, example sentences, and flashcard study tools to help you practice. Happy studying!

Contents

🌱Adding Details in Chamorro

When we want to add more detail to our descriptions of ourselves and others, an easy way to do this is to describe nouns with adjectives. So rather than just saying “I am good” and “I am a student” we can combine those descriptions to say “I am a good student.”

In these notes, we will be learning how to make sentences like “I am a good student” or “I am a happy mother.” To make these sentences, we will be learning and applying the following concepts:

• The Linker “Na”

Let’s start by learning about the Linker “Na” and how it is used in Chamorro.

🌱The Linker “Na”

In English, sometimes we want to be more descriptive about people or things. We don’t just want to say student, but we want to be more specific and indicate that someone is a good student. In English, we just put the adjective in front of the noun to make these kinds of descriptions.

In Chamorro, one way to make these descriptions is with the linker “na”. It can be used in-between our adjective and noun, “linking” the description to who or what we are describing.

It’s important to know that the article na has other uses beyond what we will cover here. But for this post, we’ll be focused on its ability to help us describe people and things.

⚡Review: Adjectives

For our initial practice with this pattern, we’ll use adjectives we’ve already seen from the first lesson on how to say “I am hungry”. For quick review, these adjectives are below:

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

Adjective	English
maolik	good
malångu	sick
tristi	sad
maguf	happy
ñålang	hungry
må’u	thirsty

If needed, use the flashcard tool below to learn and practice these adjectives. Start in Learn Mode to get familiar with each word and its meaning. Then switch to Recall Mode to test yourself by remembering and producing the Chamorro word on your own.

In the next section we will use these adjectives in some basic patterns with “na”.

🌱How to say “Good Student”

To get some practice using na, we will make some basic descriptions like “good student” or “hungry student”. We will practice this pattern:

Adjective + Na + Noun

In this structure, the word order matches the English because the adjective comes before the noun. The only difference is that the word na is used between the adjective and the noun. In this pattern, the linker na shows us that the adjective is describing the noun.

Now let’s practice our new pattern with these adjectives and make descriptions about different kinds of students. We’ll be describing the word estudiånti (“student”) in all these examples:

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

Chamoru	English
maolik na estudiånti	good student
malångu na estudiånti	sick student
tristi na estudiånti	sad student
maguf na estudiånti	happy student
ñålang na estudiånti	hungry student
må’u na estudiånti	thirsty student

❓What About Using Nouns to Describe Other Nouns? What if you want to make phrases like Japanese Store or Goat Cheese? These are examples of describing a noun with another noun, and saying them in Chamorro follows a slightly different pattern. To learn more, read my lesson on Describing Nouns With Other Nouns – “Coconut Tree”.

⚡Practice It: “Good Student”

Use the flashcard tool below to learn and practice making these phrases. Start in Learn Mode for guided practice with the basic patterns, then switch to Recall Mode to check your comprehension. End in Produce Mode to make these Chamorro phrases on your own.

🌱How to Say “I am a good student”

Now we can put these phrases into complete sentences to describe ourselves and others. We will take our phrases from the previous section – good student, hungry student, happy student – and put a Yu’ Type Pronoun after it.

We’ll practice the following pattern:

[Adjective + Na + Noun] + Yu’ Type Pronoun

With this word order, we will be able to make descriptive sentences like I am a tired student or You are a happy woman.

Making “I” Statements: Let’s start by practicing with our phrases from the previous section and using them to make “I” statements, such as “I am a hungry student” or “I am a good student”. Just put yu’ at the end of the phrase:

October 2026 Note: Audio is forthcoming – thank you for your patience!

Chamoru	English
Maolik na estudiånti yu’.	I am a good student.
Malångu na estudiånti yu’.	I am a sick student.
Tristi na estudiånti yu’.	I am a sad student.
Maguf na estudiånti yu’.	I am a happy student.
Ñålang na estudiånti yu’.	I am a hungry student.
Må’u na estudiånti yu’.	I am a thirsty student.

Describing Others: Now let’s look at some examples where we are using this pattern to describe others. We’ll be using the words for people that we learned in the previous lesson:

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

Chamoru	English
Maguf na palao’an hao.	You are a happy woman.
Tristi na låhi hao.	You are a sad man.
Ñålang na fáfa’cho’chu’ gui.	She/he is a hungry worker.
Må’u na pípeska gui.	She/he is a thirsty fisherman.
Malångu na fáfa’na’gui hit.	We (2) are sick/ill teachers.
Tristi na guagualu’ hit.	We (2) are sad farmers.
Maolik na må’gas hamyu.	You (2) are good managers.
Maolik na tåta hamyu.	You (2) are good fathers.
Tristi na mediku siha.	They (2) are sad doctors.
Malångu na enfetmera siha.	They (2) are sick/ill nurses.
Maguf na taotao guafi ham.	We (2) are happy firemen.
Ñålang na guagualu’ ham.	We (2) are hungry farmers.

⚡Practice It: “I am a good student”

Use the study tool below to practice these Chamorro sentences. Start in Learn Mode for guided sentence practice before trying Comprehension Mode to read the Chamorro sentence check that you understand its meaning. Try to read the sentences out loud to get used to these patterns.

📝Summary

In this lesson we’ve learned how to add more detail to our descriptions by using the linker “na” to describe nouns with adjectives and make phrases such as “good student” or “happy woman.” We then used those phrases to describe ourselves and others, by putting a Yu’ Type Pronoun after that phrase to make sentences like “I am a good student” or “You are a happy woman.”

💡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.

➡️ Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

When you’re ready, continue to the next lesson to learn how to describe people and things by naming them directly instead of using words like he, she, or they, with sentences such as “The woman is tall” and “The student is tired.”

How to Say “The Woman Is Happy” in Chamorro – Describing Others