Up until now, my notes about action sentences in Chamorro have focused on the use of transitive verbs, which are verbs that require their action to be transferred to an object. In this next series of posts on basic action sentences, we will learn how to start using intransitive verbs to make sentences like “I am jumping” or “We sat down.” This first post will be an introduction to the concept of affixes and intransitive verbs in Chamorro, including a beginner-level review of the different categories of intransitive verbs and the affixes they take. Happy studying!

Contents
Introduction to Intransitive Verbs Introduction to Affixes Examples of Affixes UM Infix MA Prefix Intransitive Verbs Without Affixes MAN Prefix (Plural) Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson References

Introduction to Intransitive Verbs

As a reminder, we can understand verbs as being 1) Transitive verbs, 2) Intransitive verbs, or 3) Irregular verbs. Up until this point, I have focused on transitive verbs, with sentences like I bought the coffee. In this sentence type, our verb (bought) is a transitive verb because its action is transferred to a specific object (the coffee). And the general structure we have looked at for these sentences is Subject-Verb-Object.

Intransitive verbs are verbs that do not require their action to be transferred to an object. Instead, they just have the subject doing the action. Here are examples of basic intransitive sentences:

• I stood.
• We walked to the store.
• They are dancing.

To make these sentences in Chamorro we need to identify our intransitive verbs and apply affixes to our to them before we can use them in action sentences.

Introduction to Affixes

The Chamorro language makes frequent use of affixes, which are small word parts that are attached to words to create new words. Affixes can be attached to the beginning, end, or in the middle of the word. You can attach one affix to a word, or you can attach multiple affixes, effectively “stacking” them to create many new words. There are 4 types of affixes:

• Prefix: These are attached at the beginning of a word.
• Suffix: These are attached at the end of a word.
• Infix: These are attached in the middle of a word, and in Chamorro they are always placed in front of the first vowel of the word.
• Reduplication: This involves repeating the stressed vowel of a word (and the consonant it’s attached to).

Examples of Affixes

To illustrate how affixes work, let’s take the word fa’tinas which means “to make” (this verb is a transitive verb) and transform it with different affixes. At this point, it’s not important to memorize the affixes or words in the table below, it’s more important to get a sense of the variety and how much a word can be changed from its root form. In my experience, the use of affixes is one of the key features of the language that makes it feel “Chamorro.”

The affix is shown in bold, to help you see the placements:

Affix	New Word	Definition
-in-	fina’tinas	the thing made; made
-i	fa’tinasi	to make for (someone)
ma-	mafa’tinas	was made
man- + ma-	manmafa’tinas	was made (for 3+ items)
man-	mama’tinas	made (indefinite)
man- + reduplication	mama’títinas	making (indefinite)
man- + man-	manmama’tinas	made (indefinite, 3+ subjects)
na-	na’fa’tinas	to cause to make
-um-	fuma’tinas	made
na- + -um-	muna‘fa’tinas	caused to make
fan-	fama’tinas	make something (indefinite)
fan- + man-	fanmama’tinas	make something (indefinite, 3+)
-ñaihon	fa’tinasñaihon	make for a little while

As you get deeper into the language, you will see that affixes are everywhere, and this is why learning Chamorro can be so difficult. We will often hear or see affixed words, but since our dictionaries are not complete you won’t always be able to find the word.

In those situations, try out this word analyzer to find the root word: https://guamlinguistics.com/morph/ This tool is not perfect and sometimes it deconstructs words incorrectly or not at all, but it can still be a helpful resource for breaking words down.

-UM- Infix

For our basic intransitive sentences, the main affix we will be using is the -UM- infix which we will see often in the language. For many intransitive verbs, we must transform the word with the -UM- infix so we can use it in basic action sentences. You might read or hear that the -UM- infix verbalizes the word.

To apply the -UM- infix, you place it in front of the first vowel in the word.

Some examples of how to modify a word with the -UM- infix are shown below. The -UM- infix is in bold, so you can see the placement in each word.

Root Word	Definition	Verbalized With -UM-
tohge	to stand up	tumohge
chålek	to laugh, smile	chumålek
deskånsa	to rest	dumeskånsa
kånta	song, sing	kumånta
hånao	to go	humånao
åsson	to lie down	umåsson
såga	to stay	sumåga
tånges	to cry	tumånges
essalao	to shout	umessalao

MA- Prefix

There are some intransitive verbs that require the MA- prefix rather than the -UM- infix. To use this prefix, just put ma- in front of the word. It’s important to note that you will see MA- prefixes used in other contexts, but for this context it is specifically for “verbalizing” our intransitive verbs so they can be used in basic action sentences.

Some commonly used intransitive verbs that use this affix for verbalization are shown below:

Root Word	Definition	Verbalized with MA-
cho’cho’	work	macho’cho’
tå’chong	seat	matå’chong
fondo	bottom	mafondo
pokkat	walk	mamokkat
udai	ride	ma‘udai

Intransitive Verbs Without Affixes

Finally, there are some intransitive verbs that do not require an affix before being used in an action sentence. You can just use them in their root form. Some of the more common ones are shown below:

Intransitive Verb	Definition
malågu	run
maigo’	sleep
måtai	die
makmåta	to wake up
malingu	lost

MAN- Prefix (plural)

The final prefix that is important to know for intransitive verbs is the plural man- prefix, which is attached to the front of our intransitive verbs when there are 3 or more subjects doing the action. This prefix will be covered in a different post at the beginner level because it has more rules than -UM- or MA-. But it is good at the beginner level to be aware that this is another prefix that is used with intransitive verbs.

Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

And that concludes this lesson! Click the link below to continue in this blog series and learn how to use intransitive verbs in past tense sentences:

Basic Actions Part 10: Making Past Tense Sentences in Chamorro With Intransitive Verbs – “I stayed”

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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.

• Intro to -UM- infix: pg. 19-20

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

• Intransitive Verbs Overview: pg. 82-84
• Intransitive Verbs Using Ma- Prefix: pg. 79
• Intransitive Verbs Without Affixes: pg. 80, pg. 193-194
• Overview of Affixation pg. 169 – 170
• Verbalization pg. 225 – 227