This post will be an overview of how we can add nouns as the subjects in our basic action sentences. In all of my notes on basic sentence structures with verbs, I’ve only used pronouns (he, she, it, etc.) as the subjects to keep the focus on learning verbs and word order. In this post, we will practice word order to express thoughts like “The woman drank the coffee.” This post will include examples for past tense, present tense, and future tense sentences that use transitive verbs. And audio is included with all Chamorro sentences. Happy studying!

Contents
Past Tense: The woman bought the coffee Present Tense: The woman is buying the coffee Future Tense: The woman will buy the coffee Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson References

In this section, we will be adding noun subjects to our basic action sentences that use transitive verbs. If you need a review on how to make any of these sentences with pronoun subjects, please see the following posts for the foundational sentence structures:

The woman bought the coffee

First we will learn how to add noun subjects to past tense sentences. For these sentences, there are actually two places we can put our noun subject: 1) After the verb; 2) Before the verb.

In the first sentence structure, we simply add i + Noun after our transitive verb. Note that even though we are adding a noun subject, we must still put the pronoun at the front of the sentence:

Ha + Transitive Verb + i + Noun + i + Noun

Let’s get used to this pattern with just i palao’an as the subject, i kafé as the object, and different transitive verbs:

Transitive Verb	Chamoru	English
fåhån	Ha fåhan i palao’an i kafé.	The woman bought the coffee.
gimen	Ha gimen i palao’an i kafé.	The woman drank the coffee.
chule’	Ha chule’ i palao’an i kafé.	The woman took the coffee.
taña	Ha taña i palao’an i kafé.	The woman tasted the coffee.
fa’tinas	Ha fa’tinas i palao’an i kafé.	The woman made the coffee.

In the second world order, we put the i + Noun before the pronoun. This sentence structure looks like this:

I + Noun + Ha + Transitive Verb + i + Noun

And let’s practice this sentence structure with the same sentences from above, but in the new word order:

Transitive Verb	Chamoru	English
fåhån	I palao’an ha fåhån i kafé.	The woman bought the coffee.
gimen	I palao’an ha gimen i kafé.	The woman drank the coffee.
chule’	I palao’an ha chule’ i kafé.	The woman took the coffee.
taña	I palao’an ha taña i kafé.	The woman tasted the coffee.
fa’tinas	I palao’an ha fa’tinas i kafé.	The woman made the coffee.

And now let’s look at a few more examples for variety. We’ll be using both sentence structures for practice:

Chamoru	English
Ha atan i ga’lågu i pilan.	The dog looked at the moon.
Ha ayek i kákanta i dandan.	The singer chose the music.
Ha bende i guagualo’ i tinekcha’.	The farmer sold the fruit.
Ha fa’gåsi i biha i magågu.	The elderly woman washed the clothing.
Ha faisen i patgon i tituge’.	The child asked the writer.
I fafacho’cho’ ha hokka’ i basula.	The worker picked up the trash.
I fafa’nå’gue ha hasso i lalai.	The teacher remembered the chant.
I tata ha håtsa i patgon.	The father lifted up the child.
I kusineru ha nginge’ i kaddo’.	The chef smelled the soup.
I nieta ha tuge’ i estoria.	The granddaughter wrote the story.

The woman is buying the coffee

Now let’s look at bringing these sentences into the present or continuous tense. We will use the same structure as our past tense sentences, but with transitive verbs that are transformed with reduplication. The noun subject can go either after the verb or before the verb.

Let’s practice the first word order where the noun subject comes after the verb:

Ha + [Transitive Verb + Reduplication] + i + Noun + i + Noun

For some sentence drills, here are sentences that use the same subject, i palao’an, and the same object, i kafé, with different verbs:

Transitive Verb	Chamoru	English
fåfåhån	Ha fåfåhån i palao’an i kafé.	The woman is buying the coffee.
gígimen	Ha gígimen i palao’an i kafé.	The woman is drinking the coffee.
chúchule’	Ha chùchule’ i palao’an i kafé.	The woman is taking the coffee.
tátaña	Ha tátaña i palao’an i kafé.	The woman is tasting the coffee.
fa’títinas	Ha fa’títinas i palao’an i kafé.	The woman is making the coffee.

Now we will practice the second world order, where the subject is put in front of our pronoun ha:

I + Noun + Ha + [Transitive Verb + Reduplication] + i + Noun

Here are sentence drills to help us practice this sentence order, which has i palao’an as the subject and i kafé as the subject, with different verbs:

Transitive Verb	Chamoru	English
fåfåhån	I palao’an ha fåfåhan i kafé.	The woman is buying the coffee.
gígimen	I palao’an ha gígimen i kafé.	The woman is drinking the coffee.
chúchule’	I palao’an ha chùchule’ i kafé.	The woman is taking the coffee.
tátaña	I palao’an ha tátaña i kafé.	The woman is tasting the coffee.
fa’títinas	I palao’an ha fa’títinas i kafé.	The woman is making the coffee.

Special Note: In the examples above, I am translating these sentences as being in the present tense, meaning that the subject is currently doing the action. But it’s important to note that in Chamorro, this kind of reduplication can also be used in the continuous tense. Examples of this in English include She drinks coffee; She buys coffee; She makes coffee.

Now let’s practice with a wider variety of examples:

Chamoru	English
Ha á’atan i ga’lågu i pilan.	The dog is looking at the moon.
Ha á’ayek i kákanta i dandan.	The singer is choosing the music.
Ha bébende i guagualo’ i tinekcha’.	The farmer is selling the fruit.
Ha fa’gågåsi i biha i magågu.	The elderly woman is washing the clothing.
Ha fáfaisen i patgon i tituge’.	The child is asking the writer.
I fafacho’cho’ ha hóhokka’ i basula.	The worker is picking up the trash.
I fafa’nå’gue ha háhasso i lalai.	The teacher is remembering the chant.
I tata ha håhåtsa i patgon.	The father is lifting up the child.
I kusineru ha ngínginge’ i kaddo’.	The chef is smelling the soup.
I nieta ha tútuge’ i estoria.	The granddaughter is writing the story.

The woman will buy the coffee

Now we will add noun subjects to our future tense sentences. In these sentences, we will put the subject before the future tense marker para u. We’ll use this sentence structure:

[ I + Noun ] + para u + Transitive Verb + [ i + Noun ]

As a reminder, the subject is the noun that comes before the future marker, and the object is the noun that comes after the verb.

To practice, let’s use the same subject i palao’an and the same object, i kafé and make some future tense statements:

Transitive Verb	Chamoru	English
fåhån	I palao’an para u fåhån kafé.	The woman will buy the coffee.
gimen	I palao’an para u gimen i kafé.	The woman will drink the coffee.
chule’	I palao’an para u chule’ i kafé.	The woman will take the coffee.
taña	I palao’an para u tañai kafé.	The woman will taste the coffee.
fa’tinas	I palao’an para u fa’tinas i kafé.	The woman will make the coffee.

Now let’s look at a variety of examples:

Chamoru	English
I ga’lågu para u atan i pilan.	The dog will look at the moon.
I kákanta para u ayek i dandan.	The singer will choose the music.
I guagualo’ para u bende i tinekcha’.	The farmer will sell the fruit.
I biha para u fa’gåsi i magågu.	The elderly woman will wash the clothing.
I patgon para u faisen i tituge’.	The child will ask the writer.
I fafacho’cho’ para u hokka’ i basula.	The worker will pick up the trash.
I fafa’nå’gue para u hasso i lalai.	The teacher will remember the chant.
I tata para u håtsa i patgon.	The father will lift up the child.
I kusineru para u nginge’ i kaddo’.	The chef will smell the soup.
I nieta para u tuge’ i estoria.	The granddaughter will write the story.

Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

And that concludes this set of notes on adding noun subjects to our basic transitive sentences. If you would like to learn how to add noun subjects to basic intransitive sentences, click the link below:

Basic Actions Part 18: Noun Subjects pt. 2 – “The woman danced”

---

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.

• Noun subjects in transitive sentences: pg. 84

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

• Word order in transitive sentences: pg. 237