In this post we’ll learn how to talk about what we can and cannot do, such as “I can drink the coffee” or “I cannot drink the milk.” To talk about what we can or cannot do in Chamorro, we must use the word siña in our sentences. We’ll learn about the word siña and some of the most basic statements we can make, then we will go through some practice sentences to talk about what we can do, cannot do, and to ask questions. Happy studying!

Contents
Introduction to Siña Siña – I Can Drink the Coffee Ti Siña – I Can’t Drink the Coffee Kao Siña – Can I Drink the Coffee? Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson References

Introduction to Siña

The word siña is used to express ability and it means “can” or “to be able.” Some basic “can” statements that are useful for beginners are shown below. Try to use these as simple statements or replies to questions to practice using siña:

Chamoru	Ingles
Siña yu’.	I can.
Ti siña yu’.	I cannot.
Siña hao.	You can
Hunggan, siña hao.	Yes, you can.

Siña – I Can Drink the Coffee

To make a “can” statement that includes a verb, add siña in front of a basic past tense sentence. If you need a review of how to make these basic sentences, see Basic Actions Part 1: Past Tense – “I drank the coffee.”

Siña + Hu Type Pronoun + Transitive Verb + i + Object

And now let’s practice making sentences with siña:

Chamoru	English
Siña hu gimen i kafe.	I can drink the coffee.
Siña un ayao i kareta.	You can borrow the car.
Siña ha håtsa i acho’.	She can lift the rock.
Siña ta ayuda i manåmko’.	We can help the elderly.
Siña ma fa’tinas i hineksa’ agaga’.	They can make the red rice.
Siña in aligao i patgon.	We can look for the child.
Siña en taitai i katta.	You (all) can read the letter.

Ti Siña – I Cannot Drink the Coffee

We can also state these sentences in the negative by adding the negative marker ti in front of siña:

Ti siña + Hu Type Pronoun + Transitive Verb + i + Object

Now let’s go through some example sentences with this structure:

Chamoru	English
Ti siña hu gimen i kafe.	I can’t drink the coffee.
Ti siña un ayao i kareta.	You can’t borrow the car.
Ti siña ha håtsa i acho’.	She can’t lift the rock.
Ti siña ta ayuda i manåmko’.	We can’t help the elderly.
Ti siña ma fa’tinas i hineksa’ agaga’.	They can’t make the red rice.
Ti siña in aligao i patgon.	We can’t look for the child.
Ti siña en taitai i katta.	You (all) can’t read the letter.

Kao Siña – Can I Drink The Coffee?

Finally, we can also add the question word kao in front of our sentences to change our can statements into questions. This allows us to ask and answer some basic, practical questions. For a review on the question word kao, see Basic Descriptions Part 6: Questions – “Are you hungry?”

We can use the following basic structure:

Kao + Siña + Hu Type Pronoun + Transitive Verb + i + Object

Now let’s practice with some question and answer drills that use kao siña:

Chamoru	English
Kao siña un gimen i kafe? Hunggan, siña hu gimen i kafe.	Can you drink the coffee? Yes, I can drink the coffee.
Kao siña un ayao i kareta? Åhe’, ti siña hu ayao i kareta.	Can you borrow the car? No, I can’t borrow the car.
Kao siña ha håtsa i acho’? Hunggan, siña ha håtsa i acho’.	Can she can lift the rock? Yes, she can lift the rock.
Kao siña ta ayuda i manåmko’? Hunggan, siña ta ayuda i manåmko’.	Can we help the elderly? Yes, we can help the elderly.
Kao siña ma fa’tinas i hineksa’ agaga’? Åhe’, ti siña ma fa’tinas i hineksa’ agaga’.	Can they make the red rice? No, they cannot make the red rice.
Kao siña en aligao i patgon? Hunggan, siña in aligao i patgon.	Can you (all) look for the child? Yes, we can look for the child.
Kao siña en taitai i katta? Åhe’, ti siña in taitai i katta.	Can you (all) read the letter? No, we cannot read the letter.

Study Tip: To find more transitive verbs to practice with, just grab your copy of the Chamorro-English Dictionary by Donald M. Topping, Pedro M. Ogo, and Bernadita C. Dungca. Look for the words with a number “1” after it, because these can be used as transitive verbs.

Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

And that concludes this lesson, and this blog series on making basic action sentences with transitive verbs. If you would like to continue learning how to make other types of action sentences, click the link below to start the blog series on how to use intransitive verbs:

Basic Actions Part 9: Introduction to Intransitive Verbs and Affixes in Chamorro

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References

Topping, D. M., & Ogo, P. M. (1980). Spoken Chamorro with Grammatical Notes and Glossary (PALI Language Texts―Micronesia) (2nd ed.). University of Hawaii Press.

• Sentence drills with siña: pg. 148-250

Topping, D. M., & Dungca, B. C. (1980). Chamorro Reference Grammar (PALI Language Texts―Micronesia). University of Hawaii Press.

• Overview of siña: pg. 91