When we start out in the Chamorro language, one of the first things we learn is how to describe nouns with adjectives, in phrases such as dångkulo’ na kareta (big car) or yayas na palao’an (tired woman). We learn the structure that teaches us to use the na particle, and it’s easy to start with because the word order is the same as English. But Chamorro includes different ways of making descriptions, and in this blog post we will start to learn how to describe things with nouns to say phrases such as “olive oil” or “water bottle.” This post includes Chamorro audio pronunciations of all phrases voiced by Jay Che’le. Happy studying!

Contents
Intro to Describing With Nouns Word Order Words Ending in Vowels 15 Practice Drills References

Introduction to Describing With Nouns in Chamorro

We often use adjectives to describe things to make our speech more colorful and specific, such as with the phrases small bottle, tall tree, or big truck. But we also use nouns to describe things all the time! To understand what this looks like, here are some examples:

• water bottle
• apple tree
• food truck
• leather shoes
• avocado oil

In the examples above, we are taking a noun (bottle, tree, truck) and describing it with another noun (water, apple, food). In linguistic terms, this is one example of a noun phrase in Chamorro. But for our purposes, what’s important to know is that we are describing a noun with another noun.

When making these kinds of descriptions in Chamorro, there are two things we need to keep in mind:

1. Word Order
2. Words Ending in Vowels

We will go through both of these items in the rest of this post.

Word Order

In English, the describing word is said first, followed by the noun we are describing (i.e.: water bottle). But in Chamorro, the word order is flipped; the noun we are describing is said first, followed by the noun that describes it (i.e.: bottle watter). To see what this looks like, let’s start with making phrases to describe different kinds of houses. We will compare the English word order with the Chamorro word order, in English:

English Word Order	Chamorro Word Order
stone house	house stone
wood house	house wood
bamboo house	house bamboo
concrete house	house concrete
brick house	house brick

Now let’s see what these phrases look like in Chamorro, while remembering that Chamorro word for house is guma’. 

Chamoru	English
guma’ åcho’	stone house
guma’ håyu	wood house
guma’ pi’ao	bamboo house
guma’ påddet	concrete house
guma’ lådriyu	brick house

Words Ending in Vowels

When we make these noun-noun descriptions, we must also be mindful of if the first word ends with a vowel. If the first word ends with a vowel, then we must add an “n” at the end of the word. In general, this makes the entire phrase easier to say.

As an example, let’s look at different types of trees, using the commonly used Chamorro word for tree, which is trongko. Since this ends with a vowel, we must add an “n” to the end of the word, changing it from trongko to trongkon. Let’s practice this with five examples:

Chamoru	English
trongkon niyok	coconut tree
trongkon mansåna	apple tree
trongkon lemmai	breadfruit tree
trongkon nunu	banyan tree
trongkon alageta	avocado tree

15 Practice Drills

Now that we’ve learned the two main rules for these types of descriptions, let’s practice with a few more. The word order we will practice with is as follows:

Main Noun + Noun that describes it

Now let’s go through some examples below:

Chamoru	English
guma’ Yu’us	church
buteyan hånom	water bottle
sapåtos kueru	leather shoes
flores åtdao	sunflower
åcho’ atupat	sling stone
lassas lemon	lemon peel (literally: lemon skin)
båtkon aire	airplane
hågon suni	taro leaf
kålulot aniyu	ring finger
låñan olibas	olive oil
guesgues nifen	toothbrush
ulo’ ababang	caterpillar (literally: butterfly worm)
åmot gapotulu	hairspray (literally: hair medicine)
kåddon månnok	chicken soup
titiyas månha	coconut tortilla

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References

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

• Headword modified by a noun: pg. 209