This lesson is part of the Beginner Chamorro learning path.

In this first lesson, we’ll learn how to say whether something exists or not — basically, how to say “there is” or “there isn’t” in Chamorro. We’ll use guaha and tåya’ to talk about things in a clear, everyday way, like “There is a car” or “There is no car.” Happy studying!

Contents

1. Introduction to Guaha and Tåya’
2. How to Say “There is a car”
3. How to Say “There is no car”
4. Adding Location: “There is a car on the road”
5. Summary
6. ➡️ Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

Introduction to Guaha and Tåya’

Guaha and Tåya’ are the verbs we use in Chamorro to indicate that something exists (guaha) or does not exist (tåya’). We can understand these words as meaning “there is” or “there is no.”

In this lesson, we’ll practice basic patterns for saying the following:

• “There is ___”
• “There is no ___”

We’ll also expand upon these sentences and practice adding locations, to say things like “There is a car on the road.“

How to Say “There is a car”

When we want to indicate that something exists, or when we want to say things like “There is a dog”, we simply use the word guaha and follow it with a noun. This is the general structure:

Guaha + Noun

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

Chamoru	English
Guaha siya.	There is a chair.
Guaha nengkånnu’.	There is food.
Guaha lepblo.	There is a book.
Guaha kareta.	There is a car.
Guaha dandan.	There is music.
Guaha gupot.	There is a party.
Guaha tilifon.	There is a phone.
Guaha hånom.	There is water.

📝Using Dos or Siha: As a quick note, the word that follows guaha is typically interpreted as singular, unless we use the word dos or siha.

How to Say “There is no car”

When we want to say that something does not exist, or to say sentences like “There is no dog”, we would use tåya’ in front of the noun. This is the basic structure:

Tåya’ + Noun

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

Chamoru	English
Tåya’ siya.	There is no chair.
Tåya’ nengkånnu’.	There is no food.
Tåya’ lepblo.	There is no book.
Tåya’ kareta.	There is no car.
Tåya’ dandan.	There is no music.
Tåya’ gupot.	There is no party.
Tåya’ tilifon.	There is no phone.
Tåya’ hånom.	There is no water.

📝Context Can Make It Plural: The phrase Tåya’ siya can be interpreted as “There is no chair” or “There are no chairs”—just pay attention to the context.

But for people, we still want to use the plural form of the word. Tåya’ palao’an means “There is no woman”, lao Tåya’ famalao’an means “There are no women”.

Adding Location: “There is a car on the road”

Imagine if we want to specify the location, such as There is a car on the road. There is no water at the store.

To form these sentences, we just add gi + Location to the end of our sentences.

We’ll practice this pattern:

Guaha / Tåya’ + Noun + gi + Location

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

Chamoru	English
Guaha siya gi gima’.	There is a chair in the house.
Guaha nengkånnu’ gi kusina.	There is food in the kitchen.
Guaha lepblo gi lamasa.	There is a book on the table.
Guaha kareta gi chalan.	There is a car on the road.
Tåya’ dandan gi giput.	There is no music at the party.
Tåya’ gupot gi gima’ Yu’us.	There is no party at the church.
Tåya’ tilifon gi kareta.	There is no phone in the car.
Tåya’ hånom gi tenda.	There is no water at the store.

Summary

And that concludes the first part of this series on existence words in Chamorro! In this lesson we learned about the words guaha and tåya’, how we can use them to make sentences like “there is a dog” or “there is no dog.” We also expanded these sentences by adding locations and basic actions to help us say more with guaha and tåya’.

➡️ Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

When you’re ready, click the link below for the next lesson in this Beginner Chamorro series, where we’ll learn how to talk about what we have and don’t have with guaha and tåya’.

How to Say “I Have a Car” in Chamorro – Talking About What We Have And Don’t Have