Have you ever wanted to tell someone not to do something in Chamorro, such as “Don’t do that” or “Don’t touch it”? One Chamorro word you can use is mungnga’ —it’s how you can say “no,” “not,” or “don’t” when you’re stopping someone from doing something.

In this post, we’ll start learning about some of the ways mungnga’ works in Chamorro sentences. You’ll see examples like “Don’t touch it”, “Don’t eat that” and “Don’t say the answer” so you can start using them right away. For parents, learning mungnga’ is especially useful. You can start using it with your children to give gentle guidance, set boundaries, and practice Chamorro in everyday situations.

By the end, you’ll be able to build your own “don’t do…” sentences with mungnga’. As always, this post includes example sentences, Chamorro audio narrations by Jay Che’le and English translations. Happy studying!

Contents
Introduction to Mungnga’ Getting Our Verbs Ready With the Ma- Prefix Saying “Don’t Touch It” in Chamorro Saying “Don’t Touch That” in Chamorro With Enao Saying “Don’t Touch the Stove” in Chamorro Summary Up Next: Part 2, Saying “Don’t Talk to Me” with Mungnga’ Sources

Introduction to Mungnga’

When we want to tell others not do something, one of the words we can use in Chamorro is mungnga’, which means “no, not, don’t.” A simple phrase you may already be familiar with is mungnga’ yu’, which we can use to decline something offered to us.

In this post, we’ll start to expand our usage of mungnga’ by pairing it with action words to say sentences such as “Don’t touch it”, “Don’t touch that”, or “Don’t touch the stove.” In all of these sentences, we will be using:

• Transitive verbs
• Passive ma- prefix
• Objects

To get prepared for these phrases, in the next section we’ll practice with the verbs we’ll be using throughout this lesson.

Getting Our Verbs Ready With the Ma- Prefix

The verbs we’ll be using throughout this post are called transitive verbs, which are action words that are used when we do an action to someone or something.

In order to use these types of verbs with mungnga’, we first need to transform them with the Passive Ma- Prefix.

📝 Ma- versus -UM-: Other speakers may transform these verbs with the UM Infix, but to keep things simple in this lesson, we will only practice with the Ma- Prefix (which is also commonly used). Just keep in mind that you’ll hear native speakers use other forms 🙂

To use this prefix, we simply add ma– in front of the verb. We will follow the pattern for word transformation shown below:

Passive Ma- + Transitive Verb

❗Important Note for Verbs Starting With Vowels: If the verb starts with a vowel, you also need to add a glota between the ma- and the verb. (Examples: ågang -> ma’ågang; ayuda -> ma’ayuda)

Now let’s practice transforming the verbs we’ll use throughout this lesson. The original word is shown in the left-hand column, and the transformed word is shown in the right-hand column, with the ma- prefix in bold so you can clearly see its placement:

Root Word	Transformed Word
sångan	masångan
usa	ma’usa
cho’gue	macho’gue
kånnu’	makånnu’
pacha	mapacha

Now these verbs are ready to be used with mungnga’. In the next section, we’ll start building simple sentences with them.

Saying “Don’t Touch It” in Chamorro

In this first set of practice drills, we’ll make sentences like “Don’t touch it”; “Don’t say it”; “Don’t use it.”

In these sentences, our object (what we’re telling them not to touch, say, or use) is simply “it”. These sentences are appropriate to use when both of you know the “it” you’re referring to.

The pattern we’ll practice with is shown below:

Mungnga’ + [Passive Ma- + Transitive Verb]

Now let’s practice this pattern in the table below. The addition of mungnga’ is shown in bold, to help us clearly see the pattern:

Chamorro	English
Mungnga‘ masångan.	Don’t say it.
Mungnga‘ ma’usa.	Don’t use it.
Mungnga‘ macho’gue.	Don’t do it.
Mungnga‘ makånnu’.	Don’t eat it.
Mungnga‘ mapacha.	Don’t touch it.

❓Where is the word for “it” in our sentence?: Notice that we aren’t actually stating the word “it” in these sentences. Why? Because in Chamorro, the word “it” is typically implied and not actually stated when we are talking about non-humans. (This is actually something I learned from a reader of this blog back in 2020, who very kindly commented on a post I wrote back then 🙂 )

Great work! In the next section we will start expanding these sentences a little bit by using the word enao (that) to build sentences like “Don’t touch that” in Chamorro.

Saying “Don’t Touch That” in Chamorro With Enao

In this section we’ll build on the previous pattern and practice saying sentences like “Don’t say that”, “Don’t use that”, or “Don’t do that.”

In these sentences, our object is enao, which means “that”. And as a reminder, we use the word enao when the “that” we’re referring to is closest to whomever we are talking to.

To start using enao in these sentences, say it after the verb.

We’ll practice with the pattern below:

Mungnga’ + [Passive Ma- + Transitive Verb] + Enao

Now let’s practice this pattern with the examples below. The word enao is in bold to show the new pattern:

Chamorro	English
Mungnga’ masångan enao.	Don’t say that.
Mungnga’ ma’usa enao.	Don’t use that.
Mungnga’ macho’gue enao.	Don’t do that.
Mungnga’ makånnu’ enao.	Don’t eat that.
Mungnga’ mapacha enao.	Don’t touch that.

Awesome job! In the following section, we will practice our final pattern with mungnga’, which involves giving negative commands about specific objects (i.e.: Don’t touch the stove, Don’t touch the knife, Don’t touch the dessert).

Saying “Don’t Touch the Stove” in Chamorro

In this section, instead of saying “Don’t touch that” we will be more specific and actually state the object we don’t want the other person to touch (i.e.: Don’t touch the stove; the knife; the dessert).

Instead of saying enao after our verb, we will say i + the object. And in these sentences, the object will be a noun (i.e.: the stove, the answer, the knife).

We’ll practice this pattern:

Mungnga’ + [Passive Ma- + Transitive Verb] + i + Object

Now let’s look at our examples in the table below. The i + Object is shown in bold, to help us see the pattern:

Chamorro	English
Mungnga’ masångan i ineppe’.	Don’t say the answer.
Mungnga’ ma’usa i se’si’.	Don’t use the knife.
Mungnga’ macho’gue i aktibidåt.	Don’t do the activity.
Mungnga’ makånnu’ i fina’mames.	Don’t eat the dessert.
Mungnga’ mapacha i feggon.	Don’t touch the stove.

Summary

And that concludes this first lesson on mungnga’ – awesome job! As a quick recap, here’s what we covered:

• We practiced transforming our transitive verbs with the ma- prefix to get them into the right form to use with mungnga’
• We paired mungnga’ with our transformed verbs to say sentences like “Don’t touch it”, “Don’t say it”, “Don’t eat it”
• We then incorporated enao (that) into our sentences to say “Don’t touch that”, “Don’t say that”, “Don’t eat that”
• Finally, we added specific objects so we could build sentences like “Don’t touch the stove”, “Don’t say the answer” and “Don’t eat the dessert.”

💡Study Tip: Make sure to review and use the example sentences we practiced in this lesson. When you’re ready, find other transitive verbs that you’re likely to use in your daily life and apply the patterns from this post to make your own mungnga’ statements.

Up Next: Part 2, Saying “Don’t Talk to Me” With Mungnga’

When you are ready, continue to part 2 in this series, where we’ll learn how to build statements like “Don’t talk to me”, “Don’t hug me”, or “Don’t say that to me” in Chamorro.

Learning “Don’t” in Chamorro, Part 2: Referencing Yourself With Mungnga’ – “Don’t Ask Me”

Sources

Sentence patterns were identified from reading texts in Chamorro and listening to native speakers.