In this first lesson on existential sentences, we’re going to learn how to say whether something exists or not—basically, how to say “there is” or “there isn’t” in Chamorro. We’ll use the words guaha and tåya’ to do this. For example, you can say Guaha nengkånno’ (“There’s food”) or Tåya’ lepblo (“There are no books”). We’ll start with the basics of using these two words, then mix in a few other sentence types in the practice drills to keep things interesting and help you build variety as you learn. Happy studying!

Contents
Introduction to Guaha and Tåya’ Example Sentences: “There is a chair” Example Sentences with gi or giya Example Sentences with Actions Summary Up Next: What We Have and Don’t Have

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.”

Using Guaha

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

So if we want to say “There is a dog” we can say Guaha ga’lågu.

📝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.

Using Tåya’

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

To say “There is no dog” we would say Tåya’ ga’lågu.

In the following sections, we will practice using tåya’ and guaha in example sentences for more practice.

Example Sentences: “There is a chair”

Below is a list of example sentences using the basic sentence structure to help us get used to using guaha and tåya’:

Chamoru	English
Guaha siya.	There is a chair.
Guaha gollai siha.	There are vegetables.
Tåya’ lepblo.	There are no books.
Guaha påtgon.	There is a child.
Guaha famalao’an.	There are women.
Tåya’ kareta.	There are no cars.
Tåya’ dandan.	There is no music.
Guaha gupot.	There is a party.
Tåya’ tilifon.	There is no phone.
Tåya’ hånom.	There is no water.

Example Sentences with gi or giya

When using sentences with guaha or tåya’, we can add more complexity by indicating a location. Adding locations to sentences is covered more in-depth in this post. But for a quick reminder, we use gi or giya in front of a location word when adding a location to a sentence.

Chamoru	English
Tåya’ bilembinas gi tenda giya Seattle.	There is no starfruit at the store in Seattle.
Guaha gollai siha gi hatdin.	There are vegetables in the garden.
Guaha påtgon gi fanñanguyan.	There is a child in the swimming pool.
Tåya’ puti’on gi langhet.	There are no stars in the sky.
Guaha guinaiya gi korason-hu.	There is love in my heart.
Tåya’ manengheng na hånom gi labadot.	There is no cold water in the sink.
Guaha meggai na taotao siha gi gipot.	There are a lot of people at the party.
Tåya’ ånglo na tu’åya gi kanton tåsi.	There are no dry towels at the beach.
Tåya’ minagof gi matå-mu.	There is no happiness in your eyes.
Guaha påkyo giya Cannon Beach.	There is a storm in Cannon Beach.

Example Sentences with Actions

Below is a list of sentences that use guaha and tåya’ with other sentence types, with a primary focus on using basic descriptive sentences and basic action sentences. Here are a few examples of how guaha and tåya’ can start to expand our abilities at a beginner level.

Chamoru	English
Tåya’ hineksa’ agaga’ gi kusina sa’ hu kånno’.	There is no red rice in the kitchen because I ate it.
Hu konne’ i guihan sa’ tåya’ nengkånno’ gi gima’.	I caught the fish because there is no food at the house.
Ti magof i palao’an sa’ tåya’ kafe gi ofisina.	The woman is not happy because there is no coffee at the office.
Kao guaha nengkånno’ gi gipot?	Is there food at the party?
Un dingu yo’ gi gipot sa’ guaha otro na palao’an gi lina’lå-mu.	You left me at the party because there is another woman in your life.
Åhe’, tåya’ otro na palao’an gi lina’lå-hu.	No, there is not another woman in my life.
Kao guaha nuebu na lepblo siha gi liberia?	Are there new books at the library?
Guaha mangnge’ na fina’mames gi panderia.	There is yummy dessert at the bakery.
Ekungok i rediu sa’ guaha nuebu na kåntan Chamoru.	Listen to the radio because there is a new Chamoru song.
Ti hu ekungok i nuebu na kånta sa’ tåya’ elektrisidåt.	I did not listen to the new song because there is no electricity.

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’.

Up Next: What We Have and Don’t Have

(TBD) Stay tuned for the next lesson, where we’ll learn how to talk about what we have and don’t have with gái and tái.