Year: 2026

How to Say “Yours” and “Mine” in Chamorro – Talking In General About What Belongs to You

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro Lessons: Beginner2 Comments

In this fifth and final beginner lesson on Chamorro classifiers, we’ll learn how to use iyo, which is used to express general ideas of what belongs to us, such as “mine” or “yours”. It’s also often used to indicate possession of non-Chamorro words. As always, this post includes explanatory notes, practice sentences, English translations, and Chamorro audio recordings by Jay Che’le to support your learning. Happy studying!

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Mungnga Masångan by Toni Quitugua – Chamorro Lyrics and English Translation

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro SongsLeave a comment

Last Saturday, Jay led the Praktikan Pupuengi group through listening to and transcribing the love song Mungnga Masångan by Toni Quitugua. This song has long been in rotation on Jay’s Chamorro music playlist, so it felt like a full-circle moment to hear the practice group working through the lyrics together. It’s a great song for beginners—the pacing is slow and the lyrics use simple but emotional language. As always, this post includes Chamorro lyrics, an English translation and language notes. Happy listening!

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How to Say “My Dog” in Chamorro – Talking About Your Pets

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro Lessons: Beginner1 Comment

In this lesson, you’ll learn Chamorro patterns for talking about your animals and pets in Chamorro using the special classifier ga’-. By the end, you’ll be able to say phrases like “my dog,” “your cat,” and “Juan’s dog”, and be able to recognize these phrases when they are used in speech. As always, we’ve included Chamorro practice sentences, English translations, and Chamorro audio recordings by Jay Che’le to support your learning. Happy studying!

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How to Say “My Water” in Chamorro – Talking About Your Beverages

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro Lessons: Beginner2 Comments

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about drinks that belong to you and others by using a special pattern that’s just for beverages. By the end of the lesson, you’ll be able to say phrases like “my coffee,” “Juan’s drink,” and “Maria’s water” with confidence, and start to recognize this pattern naturally in conversation or writing. As always, this post includes explanatory notes, practice sentences, English translations, and Chamorro audio recordings by Jay Che’le. Happy studying!

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Saying “There” in Chamorro: A Guide to Using Guatu

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro Lessons: IntermediateLeave a comment

In this post, we’ll start practicing with Chamorro location words—starting with guatu, which means “there, in that direction” and is useful for when we want to talk about movement or action toward a place, person, or object. In this lesson we’ll focus on 9 common ways guatu is used, starting simple and expanding out to different variations. We’ve also included 40 sentence drills to help you get comfortable with using the patterns naturally in your own speech. To get the most out of this lesson, it is helpful to have familiarity with basic action sentences.

As always, this lesson has Chamorro sentence drills, English translations and Chamorro audio voiced by Jay Che’le, so you can hear the pronunciation as you practice. Happy studying!

Continue reading “Saying “There” in Chamorro: A Guide to Using Guatu” →