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When I started learning Chamorro, I quickly realized that knowing the literal meaning of words did not guarantee that I would understand what was actually being communicated. One of the phrases that taught me this was Ågang hit – which I first heard in conversation with an aunty or uncle. They were saying “Call me”, but with hit (“us”) instead of yu’ (“me”). At the time it really confused me because it didn’t match the grammar rules I was taught. But now, with five additional years of language exposure and a revelation from a certain British baking show, I understand this Chamorro speech pattern in a different way. In this post, I’m going to explore this phenomenon in spoken Chamorro – when hit is switched for yu’ – and how I’ve come to a new understanding of its function in the language.

When Hit Actually Means Yu’

From the very beginning of learning Chamorro, I noticed speakers using the pronoun hit even when it was clearly understood that they meant yu’.

I kept hearing this pattern again and again, and at first I naively thought it could be a widespread error. Jay often speaks this way too, but when I asked him why, he couldn’t explain it. So I did what most learners eventually do — I shrugged, absorbed the pattern, and moved on.

That is, until recently, when Jay and I were watching an episode of The Great British Bake Off. Something one of the hosts said made me realize that this might actually be a colloquialism — a kind of informal usage that native speakers use in everyday conversation. And it struck me that this particular pattern might be difficult for native speakers of American English to recognize, because it doesn’t occur in our variety of English at all.

Examples from the British Isles: “Give us a hug.”

In the aforementioned episode of “The Great British Bake Off”, there was a moment when the host Noel said to a contestant, “Give us a hug.” Hearing Noel say this immediately reminded me of something similar I’d noticed in Chamorro — when hit actually means yu’.

If you are not familiar with British English, you might think that Noel was inviting the contestant to some group hug. But he wasn’t – he was using a colloquialism that is common in British English, which is to use the word “us” to mean “me.” Some of the most common phrases that follow this form are “Lend us a hand”, “Buy us a drink”, or “Give us a kiss”.

We don’t have this pattern in American English, but it’s definitely used in the U.K. and is recognized as part of their spoken English. On Wikipedia, they refer to this as a pronoun exchange¹, where the pronoun “us” is used instead of “me”, but the meaning is still understood as “me.” This particular usage of “us” in the U.K. even has its own entry in the Cambridge Dictionary, where it literally defines “us” as “me” used in spoken English.² What I can gather from a smattering of online forums is that it seems to be an informal way of speaking, to convey a softer tone and be more friendly.

Realizing that British English sometimes uses “us” to mean “me” made the hit / yu’ phenomenon in Chamorro suddenly click for me.

A Grammatical Error or Colloquialism in Chamorro? Some Thoughts

Reflecting on this us / me pronoun exchange in the U.K. leads me to believe that the Chamorro language is doing something similar with hit and yu’. Admittedly, I don’t have recordings of every instance where I’ve heard this pronoun exchange, nor do I have beautifully cleaned datasets of text to show you. But there’s a Chamorro song that does a great job of capturing this pattern: Daniel De Leon Guerrero’s cover of the song “Buy Me a Rose.”

Instead of translating the main chorus line as fahåni yu’ flores rosa, it’s translated as fahåni hit flores rosa. And in the second line of the chorus, this pronoun exchange happens again with babayi hit ni petta. But in both instances we clearly understand the hit to mean yu’ – “Buy me a rose, open the door for me.” In this context, using hit for yu’ seems to soften the tone, which aligns with the love song’s emotional intent. Whereas demanding that your significant other buy roses for you would probably dampen the vibe.

The other ways you may have seen the hit / yu’ exchange used are in contexts of familiarity. When someone says Ågang hit! (“Call me!”) it somehow feels more friendly and casual, whereas Ågang yu’! could feel more like a command. Perhaps this use of hit feels softer because it blurs the distinction between speaker and listener — framing the action as relational rather than one-sided. From this lens, the hit / yu’ pronoun exchange appears to be a way that speakers modulate their language to convey a particular tone.

This isn’t an isolated pattern either—Chamorro has many ways of subtly modulating tone and feeling through language. One fun example is how speakers reduplicate the ends of words for emphasis – like saying dångkulululu rather than just dångkulu or even gof dångkulu to really emphasize the immense size of something. A ubiquitous example of modifying speech for politeness is using the polite article fan, which is so common that some speakers even include it in their English. For respectful speech, we may choose our phrasing more carefully when speaking with elders. Sometimes this manifests in the more culturally salient customs – such as greeting an elder with ñot or ñora. Other times it’s more subtle, such as saying Hassu’ na rather than mungnga’ maleffa when sharing a thought, or preceding requests with phrases like An maguf hao or An ti un lalålo’.

In each of these examples, adjustments are made not for grammatical reasons, but to navigate relationships and expression — to soften, emphasize, or show respect. These kinds of modulations give the Chamorro language its flavor, and they also tell us something deeper about our culture’s values, social norms and expressiveness. But these facets exist in the lived and relational dimensions of actual language exchange, not in the grammar rules. In the instance of the hit / yu’ pronoun exchange— which I do think reflects commonly accepted speech rather than an error— it’s clear that knowing vocabulary and syntax isn’t enough. We also need to develop a feel for colloquial usage as well.

All of this just points us to the reality that language is always more than its grammar. While we absolutely need vocabulary and syntax to function, words and grammar without culture will always be incomplete. I certainly don’t know everything about these layers of our language, and there are many ways that Chamorro speakers express themselves that I am still not comfortable with using because I can’t feel them yet. But I’m learning to let these nuances grow organically in my own speech. In the case of the hit and yu’ pronoun exchange, I’ve come to believe that calling it a “grammatical error” misses something vital—a bit of the “soul” of our language and culture.

And perhaps the next time we hear speakers say things that appear ungrammatical, we can leave room for the possibility that something more is being communicated that reaches beyond “the rules.”

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Footnotes

1. Wikipedia contributors, “English Language in Northern England,” Wikipedia, September 3, 2025, accessed November 1, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_Northern_England#Pronouns. ↩︎
2. “Us,” October 29, 2025, accessed November 1, 2025, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/us. ↩︎