If we are getting started in making basic action sentences in Chamorro, a common starting place for learners is making transitive statements which are sentences like “I drank the coffee” or “She prepared the food.” Before we get started with making these types of sentences, let’s learn a little more about the verbs used, which are called transitive verbs. In this post we’ll go over some practical ways to understand what transitive verbs are and the features of transitive sentences that matter the most in Chamorro.

If you are at a more intermediate level, check out my post on The Man- Prefix for Transitive Verbs as it has similar content but expands to understanding how to use the MAN- prefix with transitive verbs. Happy studying!

Contents
What is a Transitive Verb? The Different Types of Objects How Transitive Verbs are Used in Chamorro Study Tip: Quickly Identify Transitive Verbs Wrapping Up: Review These Concepts on Quizlet! Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson References

What is a Transitive Verb?

A transitive verb is a word that is an action, which must transfer its action to someone or something. Another way to put it is that a transitive verb must have an object to receive its action.

For example, when we read, we must read something. When we clean, we must clean something. When we remember, we must remember something. There must always be an object that the verb is acting upon.

Contrast this with intransitive verbs, which don’t require an object. With intransitive verbs, we can make sentences with just the subject doing the action. Sentences like “I walked”, “She screamed”, or “They danced” are examples of intransitive sentences because they don’t need an object. They still make sense without one.

And when we make action sentences that use transitive verbs, we are making transitive sentences. The key things to remember about transitive sentences are that they have a transitive verb and an object that is receiving the verb’s action.

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The Different Types of Objects

And when we talk about the objects in our transitive sentences, we can have different kinds of objects. In Chamorro it’s important to understand the difference between these objects because it determines how we conjugate our verbs and the structure of our sentences.

The two main objects a transitive sentence can have are known as definite objects and indefinite objects.

Two Types of Objects in Chamorro

Definite objects can also be understood as objects that are specific, such as “the apple”, “the car”, or “the coffee.” They can also be objects like “this coffee”, “that water bottle”, or “your book.” Even using the word “it” as your object is specific, such as in the sentence “I washed it.” The idea is that we have an established, mutual context for knowing which object we are talking about. (more will be said on this later)

Indefinite objects can be understood as non-specific objects, which are things like “an apple”, “a car”, “some coffee”, “starfruit”, or “books.” In contrast to definite objects, we don’t always have an established, mutual context for the objects we are talking about. Or we are talking about the objects in general, rather than particular ones.

Some Examples of Why Definite Versus Indefinite Objects Are Important

To further illustrate this concept of an established context, here are some scenarios to show us how using specific versus non-specific objects can impact our speech:

Scenario 1: Imagine you are meeting someone for the first time and they ask you about your hobbies. If you answer, “I like to read books,” this answer fits the situation because the two of you don’t know each other. Keeping the object indefinite or non-specific makes sense because you’re talking generally. But if you say, “I like to read the books,” this answer can be weird given the context. It implies that the other person already knows the books you are talking about.

Scenario 2: In another situation, let’s say your mother is making kelaguen and asks you to buy the onions for the dish. She could ask, “Can you buy the onions?” or “Can you buy onions?” Either sentence can make sense in this situation.

Scenario 3: Now let’s change it up a bit and say you just came home from the store and you had no idea your mom is making kelaguen, or that she needs onions for the dish. Let’s say she didn’t ask you to buy any and it wasn’t even on your list to buy onions. If she asks you, “Did you buy the onions?” it would probably induce some light panic, because we don’t really know about the onions she’s talking about, yet it seems like we ought to know. If on the other hand she asks you, “Did you buy onions?” it would fit the situation better.

Implied Objects

Another object type that’s important to know about are implied indefinite objects, which are objects that are not always stated in our sentences.

For example: if someone asks me what I did today, I can say things like, “I read” or “I cleaned” or “I wrote.” At first glance it appears that there are no objects at all in these sentences.

But the object is still implied, even if it’s not stated in the sentence. I had to have read something, cleaned something, or written something. Those somethings exist, but we aren’t stating outright what they are.

In those sentences, it is this unstated something that is the object receiving the action. And because it is not stated, the something is implied.

This means that even if we don’t state an object explicitly, the transitive verb is still acting on something. Remember, that is the nature of a transitive verb – it needs an object to do something to in order to be complete, even if the object is not stated.

Comparing Definite Versus Indefinite Objects

To wrap up this section, let’s do a quick comparison of what definite versus indefinite objects can look like in some simple sentences in English:

Definite Object	Indefinite Object	Indefinite Object
I watched the movie.	I watched a movie.	I watched something.
I read the books.	I read some books.	I read something.
I bought it.	I bought starfruit.	I bought something.
I rented the car.	I rented a car.	I rented something.
I wrote the letter.	I wrote a letter.	I wrote (something).

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How Transitive Verbs are Used in Chamorro

Now that we know what transitive verbs are and we understand the difference between definite and indefinite objects, let’s learn why these things matter for the Chamorro language.

In Chamorro, transitive verbs have specific conjugation rules depending on if there is a definite or indefinite object in the sentence. If there is a definite object, the transitive verbs are used one way. If there is an indefinite object, they are conjugated another way and follow a different sentence structure.

Without getting too deep into the actual rules (those are covered in-depth in other posts), a good general guidepost to follow at the beginning is this:

When making sentences that have definite objects, in general we don’t need to do anything additional to the verb. Unless we are speaking in present / continuous tense, then we reduplicate the verb. Otherwise, in general we can leave the verb alone when we make sentences with definite objects, even if there are 3+ subjects. And these sentences generally go in Subject – Verb – Object order, which matches the sentence order in English.

With verb conjugations at a bare minimum and the words being in the same order as English, making sentences with definite objects is often an easy place for beginners to get started.

When making sentences with indefinite objects, the transitive verb must be conjugated with what’s called the indefinite man- prefix. If there are 3 or more subjects performing the action, then it must be conjugated a second time with the plural man- prefix. And in general, the sentence order is Verb – Subject – Object (except for future tense, which generally follows the order of Subject – Verb – Object).

With new conjugation rules to learn, a different sentence order from English and the need to pay attention to objects AND the number of people performing the action, these sentences can trip up learners at any level.

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Study Tip: Quickly Identify Transitive Verbs

To end this post, here’s a quick study tip for quickly identifying if a verb is transitive: Just grab your copy of the Chamorro-English Dictionary by Donald M. Topping, Pedro M. Ogo, and Bernadita C. Dungca. As you are looking through the entries, any word with a number “1” after it can be used as a transitive verb.

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Wrapping Up: Review These Concepts on Quizlet!

In this lesson we have learned about Transitive Verbs, which are action words that do their actions to someone or something. These are known as Objects, and we talked about the two types of objects: Definite Objects and Indefinite Objects.

If you want extra review and practice with the concepts in this lesson, practice with this Quizlet Deck as a supplementary study tool.

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Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

And that concludes this lesson! When you are ready for the next lesson, click the link below to start learning how to make past tense sentences with transitive verbs:

Lesson 10: Talking in the Past Tense – “I drank the coffee.”

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References

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

• Indefinite Man- Prefix: pg. 85-87
• Indefinite Man- Prefix: pg. 186
• Plural Man- Prefix for plural subjects and indefinite objects: pg. 186 – 187
• Definite and Indefinite Objects with Transitive Verbs: pg. 233
• Definite and Indefinite Objects: pg. 239 – 242