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 “The student is tired” — where the description and the noun are separate. Now, we’ll learn how to combine descriptions and nouns to create phrases like “tired student” or “happy child.” 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 tired student.”

This post includes lesson notes, practice drills with the Linker “na”, example sentences, and a Quizlet Deck for additional practice. Happy studying!

Contents
Introduction to Adding Details in Chamorro The Linker “Na” Practice Drills: “tired student” Example Sentences: “I am a tired student” Make Your Own Sentences Wrapping Up: Practice on Quizlet! Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

Introduction to 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 tired” or “I am a student” we can combine those descriptions and say “I am a tired student.”

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

• The linker “na”
• Word order

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

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The Linker “Na”

In English, sometimes we want to be more descriptive about people or things. We don’t just want to say coffee, but we want to be more specific and indicate that it’s hot coffee, or maybe strong coffee. In English, we just put the adjective in front of the noun to make these kinds of descriptions.

In Chamorro, making these kinds of descriptions requires that we use the linker “na” in-between our adjective and noun.

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 things.

In the next section we will do some practice drills with “na”.

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Practice Drills: “tired student”

To get some practice using na, we will make some basic phrases such as “tired student” or “strong coffee.” We will follow this word order:

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 must be used between the adjective and the noun. The linker na shows us that the adjective is describing the noun.

Now that we know the word order, let’s practice this pattern by describing the noun kafé with different adjectives. Look at at the practice drills in the table below:

Adjective	Chamoru	English
te’ok	te’ok na kafé	strong coffee
maipe	maipe na kafé	hot coffee
mala’et	mala’et na kafé	bitter coffee
paopao	paopao na kafé	fragrant coffee
mames	mames na kafé	sweet coffee

Now let’s try another pattern exercise, and this time we will use the adjective dångkulu to describe different nouns. Our practice drills are in the table below:

Noun	Chamoru	English
mapagåhes	dångkulu na mapagåhes	big cloud
tinanom	dångkulu na tinanom	big plant
såddok	dångkulu na såddok	big river
kareta	dångkulu na kareta	big car
tåsi	dångkulu na tåsi	big ocean

Special Note About Describing a Noun With Another Noun: If you want to describe a noun with another noun in this same format to say things like “Japanese store” or “goat cheese”, the word order in Chamorro is usually different. To learn this structure, see my lesson on Describing Things With Noun-Noun Descriptions.

Now let’s do one more round of practice drills with na, which are found in the table below:

Chamorro	English
maipe na kafe	hot coffee
dångkolo na såddok	big river
dikike’ na sapåtos	small shoe
magof na palao’an	happy woman
aguaguat na påtgon	stubborn child

We’ve learned about the linker “na” and practiced using it in some phrases. In the next section, we will practice making complete sentences.

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Example Sentences: “I am a tired student”

Now we can put these phrases into complete sentences to describe pronouns. We will just take our phrases from the previous section – tired student, happy child – and put a Yu’ Type Pronoun after it. We will use the following word order:

[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 busy mother.

Now let’s practice with some example sentences in the table below:

Chamorro	English
Dihåda na taotao siha.	They (2) are careless people.
Yafai na mediku siha.	They (2) are exhausted doctors.
Dudus na kakanta siha.	They (2) are flirty singers.
Yayas na nåna yu’.	I am a tired mother.
Magof na taotao yu’.	I am a happy person.
Geftao na atungo’ yu’.	I am a generous friend.
Chaddek na sisigon hamyo.	You (2) are fast drivers.
Gago’ na fafacho’cho hamyo.	You (2) are lazy workers.
Malåte’ na guagualo’ hamyo.	You (2) are smart farmers.
Kinute na neni gue’.	She is a cute baby.
Imbentibu na estudiante gue’.	He is a creative student.
Matuhok na på’le’ gue’.	He is a sleepy priest.
Metgot na taotao guafi hit.	We (2) are strong fire fighters.
Maolek na litratista hit.	We (2) are good photographers
Yayas na enfetmera hit.	We (2) are tired nurses.
Bråbu na fafalågu hao.	You are a healthy runner.
Gefsåga na taotao hao.	You are a rich person.
Chatgon na fafa’nå’gue hao.	You are a cheerful teacher.
Banidosa na fafamfok ham.	We (2) are proud weavers.
Gefpå’go na dåndera ham.	We (2) are beautiful musicians.

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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.

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Wrapping Up: Practice on Quizlet!

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 “tired student” or “busy mother.” 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 tired student” or “You are a busy mother.”

For additional practice with the example sentences in this lesson, use this Quizlet Study Deck as a supplementary study tool.

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Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

When you are ready to move on, click the link below to view the next lesson on how to use the word “not” in Chamorro.

Lesson 05: How to Say “Not” in Chamorro – “I am not hungry.”