In this post, we’ll be starting a mini-series on how to express our likes and dislikes in Chamorro. To keep things at the beginner level, we will focus on expressing likes and dislikes for pronouns or nouns. This post will focus on how to express likes for pronouns (ie.: you, me, them, etc.), and we’ll go over some basic sentence structures to say things like “I like you”; “She doesn’t like you”; “The woman likes him”; or “Juan likes you.” To do this, we’ll learn about the word ya- in Chamorro and how to use it with possessive pronouns. This is part 1 of expressing likes and dislikes in Chamorro at the beginner level, so there will be more to follow. Happy studying!

Contents
Introduction to Ya- in Chamorro I Like You. The Woman Likes You. Juan Likes Me. Negative Statements With Ti Questions With Kao Basic Conversation Practice Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson References

Introduction to Ya- in Chamorro

In Chamorro, we can express our likes and dislikes with the verb ya- which means “to like.” This verb must always be used with a possessive pronoun at its end. The foundational structure we will be using is as follows:

Ya- + Possessive Pronoun

Before we start making some basic sentences, let’s look at how the verb ya- is combined with all the possessive pronouns. Notice that for the plural pronouns -miyu, -måmi, and -ñiha we must add an “n” at the end of ya-.

For all of the statements below, we are learning how to use ya- with the pronouns. But these can also be our most basic statements such as “I like it” or “They like it.” Remember, the word “it” is often implied in context in Chamorro conversation, which is why these statements can function as short, complete sentences.

Chamoru	English
Ya-hu.	I like (it).
Ya-mu.	You like (it).
Ya-ña.	He/She/It likes (it).
Ya-ta.	We like (it).
Yan-miyu.	You all like (it).
Yan-måmi.	We like (it).
Yan-ñiha.	They like (it).

We can also make these statements negative and say things like “I don’t like it.” To do this, just add the negative marker ti to the front of the sentences above, with this structure:

Ti + Ya- + Possessive Pronoun

Chamoru	English
Ti ya-hu.	I don’t like it.
Ti ya-mu.	You don’t like it.
Ti ya-ña.	He/She/It doesn’t likes it.
Ti ya-ta.	We don’t like it.
Ti yan-miyu.	You all don’t like it.
Ti yan-måmi.	We don’t like it.
Ti yan-ñiha.	They don’t like it.

And finally, to turn these most basic sentences into questions, let’s add the question marker kao to the front of them. This allows us to make simple, short questions such as “Do you like it?” Let’s use this structure:

Kao + Ya- + Possessive Pronoun

Chamoru	English
Kao ya-hu?	Do I like it?
Kao ya-mu?	Do you like it?
Kao ya-ña?	Does He/She/It like it?
Kao ya-ta?	Do we like (inclusive) it?
Kao yan-miyu?	Do you like (plural) it?
Kao yan-måmi?	Do we like (exclusive) it?
Kao yan-ñiha?	Do they like it?

And those are the basics we need to know for using ya- with possessive pronouns, which forms our foundation for the rest of the post and this mini-series. For the rest of this post, we will use these basic structures as our foundation for learning how to express likes and dislikes for pronouns.

I Like You

Now we are going to expand on our basic sentences and talk about who we like and make statements such as “I like you.” In these statements, we add a yu’ type pronoun to the end of our basic statement, like so:

Ya- + Possessive Pronoun + Yu’ Type Pronoun

Now we’ll take our basic statements from the previous section and practice adding yu’ type pronouns at the end:

Chamoru	English
Ya-hu hao.	I like you.
Ya-mu siha.	You like them.
Ya-ña hit.	He/She/It likes us.
Ya-ta gue’.	We like her.
Yan-miyu ham.	You all like us.
Yan-måmi hamyo.	We like all of you.
Yan-ñiha yu’.	They like me.

The Woman Likes You

We can also expand on our basic sentences above and indicate more specifically who likes or dislikes someone. Adding i plus a noun at the end of our basic sentence allows us to say things like “The woman likes you” or “The children don’t like her.” To do this, our structure is as follows:

Ya- + Possessive Pronoun + Yu’ Type Pronoun + i + Noun

Notice how the order is flipped from the English. For a phrase like “The woman likes you,” the literal order in Chamorro is “Likes you the woman.” Remember, the word that follows the “i” must follow vowel harmony rules. Here are some sentence drills to practice:

Chamorro	English
Ya-ña yu’ i neni.	The baby likes me.
Yan-ñiha hamyo i famagu’on.	The children like all of you.
Ya-ña hao i palao’an.	The woman likes you.
Ya-ña siha i patgon.	The child likes them.
Ya-ña hao i neni.	The baby likes you.
Yan-ñiha hit i famalao’an.	The women like us.
Ya-ña ham i ga’lågu.	The dog likes us.

Juan Likes Me

And we can even modify that structure slightly to indicate a person, by name. This allows us to say things like, “Paula likes you” or “Juan doesn’t like him.” To do this, we use si instead of i, and replace the noun with a proper name. To get started, let’s practice making statements like “Juan likes him”:

Ya- + Possessive Pronoun + Yu’ Type Pronoun + si + Proper Name

Chamoru	English
Ya-ña yu’ si Juan.	Juan likes me.
Ya-ña hamyo si Maria.	Maria likes all of you.
Ya-ña hit si Kiko’.	Kiko’ likes us.
Ya-ña siha si Sabet.	Sabet likes them.
Ya-ña ham si Kika’.	Kika’ likes us.
Ya-ña gue’ si Jesus.	Jesus likes him.
Ya-ña hao si Ramon.	Ramon likes you.

Negative Statements With Ti

Now we can take all our previous sentences and express them in the negative by adding the negative marker ti to the front of our sentences. To practice, here are all the previous sentences in the negative:

Chamoru	English
Ti ya-hu hao.	I don’t like you.
Ti ya-mu siha.	You don’t like them.
Ti ya-ña hit.	He/She/It doesn’t like us.
Ti ya-ta gue’.	We don’t like her.
Ti yan-miyu ham.	You all like us.
Ti yan-måmi hamyo.	We don’t like all of you.
Ti yan-ñiha yu’.	They don’t like me.
Ti ya-ña yu’ i neni.	The baby doesn’t like me.
Ti yan-ñiha hamyo i famagu’on.	The children don’t like all of you.
Ti ya-ña gue’ i palao’an.	The woman doesn’t like him.
Ti ya-ña siha i patgon.	The child doesn’t like them.
Ti ya-ña hao i palao’an.	The woman doesn’t like you.
Ti yan-ñiha hit i famalao’an.	The women don’t like us.
Ti ya-ña ham i ga’lågu.	The dog doesn’t like us.
Ti ya-ña yu’ si Juan.	Juan doesn’t like me.
Ti ya-ña hamyo si Maria.	Maria doesn’t like all of you.
Ti ya-ña hit si Kiko’.	Kiko’ doesn’t like us.
Ti ya-ña siha si Sabet.	Sabet doesn’t like them.
Ti ya-ña ham si Kika’.	Kika’ doesn’t like us.
Ti ya-ña gue’ si Jesus.	Jesus doesn’t like him.
Ti ya-ña hao si Ramon.	Ramon doesn’t like you.

Questions With Kao

We can also turn the above sentences into questions by adding the question marker kao to the front of our sentences. First, let’s add them to our positive statements, such as “I like you” and make them into questions like “Do you like me?”

Chamoru	English
Kao ti ya-hu hao?	Do I not like you?
Kao ti ya-mu siha?	Do you not like them?
Kao ti ya-ña hit?	Does she not like us?
Kao ti ya-ta gue’?	Do we not like him?
Kao ti yan-miyu ham?	Do you all not like us?
Kao ti yan-måmi siha?	Do we not like them?
Kao ti yan-ñiha yu’?	Do they not like me?
Kao ti ya-ña yu’ i neni?	Does the baby not like me?
Kao ti yan-ñiha hamyo i famagu’on?	Do the children not like all of you?
Kao ti ya-ña gue’ i palao’an?	Does the woman not like you?
Kao ti ya-ña siha i patgon?	Does the child not like them?
Kao ti ya-ña hao i palao’an?	Does the baby not like you?
Kao ti yan-ñiha hit i famalao’an?	Do the women not like us?
Kao ti ya-ña ham i ga’lågu?	Does the dog not like us?
Kao ti ya-ña yu’ si Juan?	Does Juan not like me?
Kao ti ya-ña hamyo si Maria?	Does Maria not like all of you?
Kao ti ya-ña hit si Kiko’?	Does Kika not like us?
Kao ti ya-ña siha si Sabet?	Does Sabet not like them?
Kao ti ya-ña ham si Kika’?	Does Kika’ not like us?
Kao ti ya-ña gue’ si Jesus?	Does Jesus not like him?
Kao ti ya-ña hao si Ramon?	Does Ramon not like you?

Basic Dialogue Practice

Now to put everything together, let’s use these sentences in question and answer drills for some basic dialogue practice. Remember, we can also use the words hunggan (yes) and åhe’ (no) in our responses. To add emphasize, try also adding gof (very) to the replies.

Finaisen	Ineppe’
Kao ya-mu? Hunggan, ya-hu.	Do you like it? Yes, I like it.
Kao ya-ña? Åhe’, ti ya-ña.	Does she like it? No, she doesn’t like it.
Kao ya-ña yu’? Hunggan, ya-ña hao!	Does he like me? Yes, she likes you!
Kao ya-ña siha si Maria? Åhe’, ti gef ya-ña siha si Maria.	Does Maria like them? No, Maria doesn’t really like them.
Kao ya-mu yu’? Hunggan, gof ya-hu hao.	Do you like me? Yes, I really like you.
Kao ti ya-ña hao si Juan? Åhe, ti ya-ña yu’.	Does Juan not like you? No, he doesn’t like me.
Kao ya-ña hit i neni? Hunggan, ya-ña hit i neni.	Does the baby like us? Yes, the baby likes us.
Kao ti ya-ña siha i palao’an? Åhe’, ti ya-ña siha.	Does the woman not like them? No, she doesn’t like them.
Kao yan-ñiha hao i famalao’an? Åhe’, ti yan-ñiha yu’ i famalao’an.	Do the women like you? No, the women don’t like me.
Kao ti ya-mu? Åhe’, gof ti ya-hu.	Do you not like it? No, I really don’t like it.

Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

And that concludes part 1 of this series! Click the post below to continue to part 2, where we will learn how to express likes and dislikes for objects, such as “I like coffee.”

Basic Actions Part 17: Expressing Likes and Dislikes in Chamorro pt. 2 – “I like coffee.”

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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.

• Rules for using ya-: pg. 94
• Using ya- with specific objects (I like the car) : pg. 135