To build off of part 1 where we practiced transforming our transitive verbs with the indefinite man- prefix, in this post we will start using those transformed verbs in sentences. We will learn how to make simple sentences like “I bought coffee”; “I heard something”; or “I made some soup.” We will also add noun subjects to say things like “The woman bought coffee.” This post includes sentence drills in Chamorro with Chamorro audio, and English translations. Happy studying!

Contents
I bought something I bought coffee We (3+) bought something We (3+) bought coffee The woman bought coffee The women bought coffee References

I bought something

Now that we have a basic understanding of the indefinite man- prefix from the previous post, let’s practice making basic sentences. Make sure to reference my table of transformed transitive verbs for this exercise and the rest of this post. To make the most basic sentence, we can pair a yu’ type pronoun with a transitive verb that has been affixed with a single man- prefix:

[ Indefinite Man- + Transitive Verb ] + Yu’ Type Pronoun

In these sentences, we are doing an action to something. The something is implied in this sentence, even though it is not stated by a specific word.

To absorb the basic pattern, let’s practice using 5 different verbs with the pronoun yu’:

Pronoun: Yu’

Chamoru	English
Mamåhan yu’.	I bought something.
Mambende yu’.	I sold something.
Mañule’ yu’.	I took something.
Mañodda’ yu’.	I found something.
Mama’tinas yu’.	I made something.

And now here are some sentence drills to practice with a variety of yu’ type pronouns and verbs. Please note that all of the sentences below only refer to 1-2 people, even when plural pronouns are used:

Chamorro	English
Manaligao yu’.	I searched for something.
Mama’gåsi hao.	You washed something.
Manegga’ gue’.	She watched something.
Manaitai siha.	They (2) read something.
Manhåtsa hamyo.	You (2) lifted something.
Mangonne’ hit.	We (2) caught something.
Manli’e’ ham.	We (2) saw something.
Manhungok hao.	You heard something.
Mannginge’ gue’.	He smelled something.
Manlåkse siha.	They (2) sewed something.
Mångge’ yu’.	I wrote something.
Mamfok hao.	You wove something.
Mamfe’ gue’.	He picked something.
Mamfong ham.	We (2) counted something.

I bought coffee

Now we’ll take our basic sentence structure and add objects to them so we can say sentences like “I bought coffee” or “She made soup.” As a reminder, these objects are known as indefinite objects because they are not specific (ie: We bought coffee versus We bought the coffee.)

To make these sentences, just add a noun at the end of our basic sentence from the previous section:

[ Indefinite Man- + Transitive Verb ] + Yu’ Type Pronoun + Noun

Note About English Equivalents: When we translate these sentences from English to Chamorro, the indefinite objects can be said in a variety of ways in English. For example, a sentence like Mamåhan yu’ kafé can be translated as “I bought coffee” or “I bought some coffee” or “I bought a coffee.” Any of them works in our understanding.

To get started, we will learn the pattern with five different transitive verbs using the pronoun yu’ and the noun kafé with all of the verbs:

Pronoun: Yu’ | Noun: kafé

Chamoru	English
Mamåhan yu’ kafé.	I bought coffee.
Mambende yu’ kafé.	I sold some coffee.
Mañule’ yu’ kafé.	I took a coffee.
Mañodda’ yu’ kafé.	I found coffee.
Mama’tinas yu’ kafé.	I made coffee.

And now we will take our other sentences and add objects to them to get a wider variety of practice:

Chamorro	English
Manaligao yu’ haggan.	I searched for a turtle.
Mama’gåsi hao tu’åya.	You washed a towel.
Manegga’ gue’ sho.	She watched a movie.
Manaitai siha po’ema.	They (2) read a poem.
Manhåtsa hamyo trongkon håyu.	You (2) lifted a tree.
Mangonne’ hit halu’u.	We (2) caught a shark.
Manli’e’ ham taotaomo’na.	We (2) saw an ancestral spirit.
Manhungok hao sihek.	You heard a kingfisher.
Mannginge’ gue’ nengkånno’.	He smelled some food.
Manlåkse siha magågu.	They (2) sewed some clothing.
Mångge’ yu’ kåtta.	I wrote a letter.
Mamfok hao tuhong.	You wove a hat.
Mamfe’ gue’ mångga’.	He picked some mango.
Mamfong hamyo karabao.	You (2) counted water buffalo.

We (3+) bought something

Now, we will make our sentences from the previous section refer to 3 or more people. To do this, we conjugate our transitive verb with the Indefinite Man- Prefix and the Plural Man- Prefix. Then we put a yu’ type pronoun after the verb. We will use this basic sentence structure:

[ Plural Man- + Indefinite Man- + Transitive Verb ] + Yu’ Type Pronoun

Let’s practice this basic pattern with the pronoun hit. As a reminder, all of these sentences can be used when 3 or more people are doing the action:

Pronoun: Ham

Chamoru	English
Manmamåhan ham.	We (3+) bought something.
Manmambende ham.	We (3+) sold something.
Manmañule’ ham.	We (3+) took something.
Manmañodda’ ham.	We (3+) found something.
Manmama’tinas ham.	We (3+) made something.

And now we will practice adding the plural man- prefix to our other sentences for more practice. As a reminder, all of these sentences refer to 3+ people doing the action because they also have the plural man- prefix:

Chamorro	English
Manmanaligao siha.	They (3+) searched for something.
Manmama’gåsi hamyo.	You all (3+) washed something.
Manmanegga’ hit.	We (3+) watched something.
Manmanaitai ham.	We (3+) read something.
Manmanhåtsa hamyo.	You (3+) lifted something.
Manmangonne’ hit.	We (3+) caught something.
Manmanli’e’ ham.	We (3+) saw something.
Manmanhungok siha.	They (3+) heard something.
Manmannginge’ hamyo.	You (3+) smelled something.
Manmanlåkse siha.	They (3+) sewed something.
Manmångge’ ham.	We (3+) wrote something.
Manmamfok hamyo.	You (3+) wove something.
Manmamfe’ siha.	They (3+) picked something.
Manmamfong hit.	We (3+) counted something.

We (3+) bought coffee

Now we will add objects to our sentences that refer to 3+ people. The structure is the same as for sentences with 1-2 subjects; simply add the noun at the end of our basic sentence, like in this structure:

[ Plural Man- + Indefinite Man- + Transitive Verb ] + Yu’ Type Pronoun + Noun

To get started, we will practice this pattern with the pronoun ham and the noun kafe:

Pronoun: Ham | Noun: kafé

Chamoru	English
Manmamåhan ham kafé.	We (3+) bought coffee.
Manmambende ham kafé.	We (3+) sold some coffee.
Manmañule’ ham kafé.	We (3+) took some coffee.
Manmañodda’ ham kafé.	We (3+) found some coffee.
Manmama’tinas ham kafé.	We (3+) made coffee.

And now let’s practice with the rest of our sentences and add nouns:

Chamorro	English
Manmanaligao hit haggan.	We (3+) searched for a turtle.
Manmama’gåsi siha tu’åya.	They (3+) washed a towel.
Manmanegga’ hamyo sho.	You (3+) watched a movie.
Manmanaitai ham po’ema.	We (3+) read a poem.
Manmanhåtsa hamyo trongkon håyu.	You (3+) lifted a tree.
Manmangonne’ hit halu’u.	We (3+) caught a shark.
Manmanli’e’ ham taotaomo’na.	We (3+) saw an ancestral spirit.
Manmanhungok siha sihek.	They (3+) heard a kingfisher.
Manmannginge’ ham nengkånno’.	We (3+) smelled some food.
Manmanlåkse hamyo magågu.	You (3+) sewed some clothing.
Manmångge’ ham kåtta.	We (3+) wrote a letter.
Manmamfok hamyo tuhong.	You (3+) wove a hat.
Manmamfe’ siha mångga.	They (3+) picked some mango.
Manmamfong hit karabao.	We (3+) counted some water buffalo.

The woman bought coffee

Now we are going to take our sentences and add a noun subject. To do this, we add i + noun after our verb, which is our subject (the person or thing doing the action). The noun at the end of the sentence is our object. We will use this structure:

[ Indefinite Man- + Transitive Verb ] + [ i + Noun ] + Noun

Now let’s practice this form with different verbs, but with the same subject i palao’an and the same object, kafe:

Subject: i palao’an | Noun: kafé

Chamoru	English
Mamåhan i palao‘an kafé.	The woman bought coffee.
Mambende i palao‘an kafé.	The woman sold coffee.
Mañule’ i palao‘an kafé.	The woman took some coffee.
Mañodda’ i palao‘an kafé.	The woman found some coffee.
Mama’tinas i palao‘an kafé.	The woman made coffee.

And now we will practice adding noun subjects to the rest of our sentences:

Chamorro	English
Manaligao i lahi haggan.	The man searched for a turtle.
Manayao i nana tu’åya.	The mother borrowed a towel.
Manegga’ i patgon sho.	The child watched a movie.
Manaitai i tituge’ po’ema.	The writer read a poem.
Manhåtsa i maga’låhi trongkon håyu.	The chief lifted a tree.
Mangonne’ i peskadot halu’u.	The hunter caught a shark.
Manli’e’ i pale’ taotaomo’na.	The priest saw an ancestral spirit.
Manhungok i guagualo’ sihek.	The farmer heard a kingfisher.
Mannginge’ i ga’lågu nengkånno’.	The dog smelled some food.
Mama’gåsi i soterrita magågu.	The teenage girl washed some clothing.
Mångge’ i kuekuentos kåtta.	The speaker wrote a letter.
Mamfok i fafacho’cho’ tuhong.	The worker wove a hat.
Mamfe’ i kusineru mångga’.	The chef picked some mango.
Mamfong i suruhånu karabao.	The healer counted water buffalo.

The women bought coffee

Now we will practice these sentences with plural noun subjects, so instead of saying “The woman bought coffee” we can say “The women bought coffee.” We can use the same structure as above:

[ Plural Man- + Indefinite Man- + Transitive Verb ] + [ i + Noun ] + Noun

To practice this basic pattern, let’s use the plural noun famalao’an and the object kafé:

Subject: i famalao’an | Object: kafé

Chamoru	English
Manmamåhan i famalao’an kafé.	The women bought coffee.
Manmambende i famalao’an kafé.	The women sold some coffee.
Manmañule’ i famalao’an kafé.	The women took some coffee.
Manmañodda’ i famalao’an kafé.	The women found some coffee.
Manmama’tinas i famalao’an kafé.	The women made coffee.

Using Nouns That Are Made Plural

In Chamorro, we only have 3 nouns that have a plural form, which are famalao’an, lalåhi, and famagu’on. All other nouns that refer to people must be put into the plural form by either:

1. Attaching the plural man- prefix to the front of the word
2. Adding the word siha after the word

For the sentences we are creating in this section, for any nouns that refer to people we may see either of those forms. However, we may also see the noun not being modified at all, since the plural nature of the nouns is already indicated by the plural man- prefix in the verb. For example, using the noun estudiante we may read or hear any of the following:

Chamorro	English
Manmamåhan i estudiante kafé.	The students bought coffee.
Manmamåhan i estudiante siha kafé.	The students bought coffee.
Manmamåhan i manestudiante kafé.	The students bought coffee.

That being said, there are some words that are usually always pluralized with just the plural man- prefix rather than adding siha after them. These are words like mañaina, manåmko’, mamåle’, mañe’lu, mangga’chong, and mañakke’.¹ For these words, I would always just use that form, rather than leaving it in its root form or using siha.

Important Note for Non-Human Nouns: For nouns that are not people, we do not add the plural man- prefix to make them plural. For the sentences in this section, it’s okay to leave them in their root form or to add the word siha after the word. Example: we can say ga’lågu or ga’lågu siha. We would not say mangga’lågu.

For the following practice sentences, I am going to alternate between all three forms with plural man- on the noun, siha after the noun, or no modification to the noun. Likely the teachers or speakers in your lives will want you to say these sentences in a certain way, but I will be practicing all the forms here.

Chamorro	English
Manmanaligao i lalåhi haggan.	The men searched for a turtle.
Manmama’gåsi i mannåna tu’åya.	The mothers washed a towel.
Manmanegga’ i famagu’on mubi.	The childred watched a movie.
Manmanaitai i mantituge’ po’ema.	The writers read a poem.
Manmanhåtsa i maga’låhi trongkon håyu.	The chiefs lifted a tree.
Manmangonne’ i peskadot halu’u.	The hunters caught a shark.
Manmanli’e’ i mamåle’ taotaomo’na.	The priests saw an ancestral spirit.
Manmanhungok i mangguagualo’ sihek.	The farmers heard a kingfisher.
Manmannginge’ i ga’lågu siha nengkånno’.	The dogs smelled some food.
Manmama’gåsi i enfetmera magågu.	The nurses washed some clothing.
Manmångge’ i kuekuentos kåtta.	The speakers wrote a letter.
Manmamfok i fafacho’cho’ tuhong.	The workers wove a hat.
Manmamfe’ i kusinera siha mångga’.	The chefs picked some mango.
Manmamfong i suruhånu karabao.	The healers counted water buffalo.

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References

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

• Double man- prefix and plural subjects: pg. 234-235
• ¹ Plural subjects. pg. 235 (back to lesson)
• Definite and Indefinite Objects: pg. 239-242
• Double man- prefix: pg. 240 (bottom of page)
• Special word transformations w/indefinite man- prefix: pg. 241 (item 1)
• Transitive verbs that don’t take the indefinite man- prefix : pg. 241 (items 2 and 3)