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

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro Lessons: Intermediate

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!

Contents

  1. Introduction to Guatu
  2. Going “To” a Place
  3. Going “To” a Person
  4. Going “To” Him or Her
  5. Going “To” a Place by Name
  6. Saying “There” Without Saying Where
  7. Saying “There” Based on The Other Person
    1. Guatu Guennao: “There, Toward You”
    2. Guatu Guihi: “There, Away From Us”
  8. Talking About Facing a Direction
  9. Common “Over To” Expressions
  10. Wrap-Up
  11. Notes
  12. References
  13. Further Reading

Introduction to Guatu

The word guatu is a Chamorro location word that means “there, over there, in that direction”.1 It is one of the movement location words, which means that it is the form of “there” which is said when we are talking about going to or from a “there”.

Chamorro uses guatu in a variety of combinations with different articles and words, depending upon what we are trying to say. We can use guatu to talk about going over to a place, a specific city, a person, or even just in a general direction.

Guatu is used in many different ways, and this lesson will not be able to address all of them. But what we will do is start practicing with some of the most common patterns with guatu. To illustrate this, we will be applying the following concepts throughout this lesson:

  • Basic intransitive sentences and verbs
  • Basic transitive sentences and verbs
  • The articles gi, giya, iya and as
  • Combining guatu with the location words guennao and guihi
  • Using the prefix talak- with guatu

Let’s get started with a common and very useful pattern in the next section: using guatu gi to talk about going to a place.

Going “To” a Place

We can use the phrase guatu gi when we are talking about going to a place, such as in the sentence “I am going over there to the school”. In this example, we are expressing movement toward a general location.

To make these sentences, we put guatu gi in front of the location, as long as the location is a general place (i.e.: the store, the school, the beach).

Let’s practice using guatu gi in basic intransitive sentences, such as Mamokkat yu’ (I walked) or Mamokkat i patgon (the child walked). We will just put guatu gi + Location at the very end of our sentence.

We’ll practice this word order:

[Basic Intransitive Sentence] + guatu gi + Location

Our sentence drills are in the table below:

ChamoruEnglish
Humånao i palao’an guatu gi tenda.The woman went over there to the store.
Mamómokkat i patgon guatu gi eskuela.The child is walking over there to the school.
Malågu siha guatu gi kareta.They (2) ran over there to the car.
Gumúgupu ham guatu gi isla.We (2) are flying over there to the island.
Muñangu hamyo guatu gi boti.You (2) swam over there to the boat.

❓ What About “Para i”? Most of us first learn the phrase para i to indicate movement to or toward somewhere. For example: the sentence Humånao i palao’an para i tenda is a common starting place for learners. But many native speakers will also use guatu gi, which I was told is a more indigenous phrasing.

Learner Takeaway: If you are interested in using more native speech patterns and/or reducing the number of Spanish loanwords in your Chamorro, swapping para i for guatu gi is an easy and natural place to start.

Going “To” a Person

We can also use the word guatu to talk about movement toward a specific person, such as in the sentence “Go to Maria” or “We ran to Juan.”

To do this, we can use the phrase guatu gi as before the person’s name and say guatu gi as Maria or guatu gi as Juan.

Please also note that certain nouns, such as mother and father, are treated more like proper nouns and would also be used in this pattern.

📝 Different Translations for “gi as Juan”: To keep things simple in this section, I’ve translated a phrase like guatu gi as Juan to mean “over to Juan”. But please note that gi as Juan can also be understood as “at Juan’s place” or simply “at Juan’s.”

We will follow this word order, using basic intransitive sentences again as our base and adding guatu gi as to the end:

[Basic Intransitive Sentence] + guatu gi as + Persons Name

Now let’s practice with some sentences in the table below:

ChamoruEnglish
Malågu ham guatu gi as Elsie.We (2) ran over to Elsie.
Mamokkat hao guatu gi as Antonio.You walked over to Antonio.
Muñangu siha guatu gi as Dabit.They (2) swam over to David.
Gumupu i paluma guatu gi as tatå-hu.The bird flew over to my father.
Humånao i tendera guatu gi as nanå-mu.The shop keeper went over to your mother.

Great job! In the next pattern, we’ll learn how to make sentences like “I walked over to him” or “I walked over to them“.

Going “To” Him or Her

Sometimes we may want to say sentences like “I walked over to him” or “The child ran to them”, where we refer to others with pronouns.

For these types of sentences in Chamorro, we use the emphatic pronouns and the phrase guatu giya goes in front of the pronoun.

We will practice again with basic intransitive sentences, and simply put guatu giya + Emphatic Pronoun at the end of the sentence. The word order is below:

[Basic Intransitive Sentence] + guatu giya + Emphatic Pronoun

Our sentences drills are in the table below:

ChamoruEnglish
Gumúgupu yu’ guatu giya hågu.I am flying over to you.
Sumigi hao guatu giya guiya.You continued over to her.
Chumaddek si Lupe’ guatu giya hågu.Guadalupe hurried over to you.
Mamokkat i palao’an guatu giya hami.The woman walked over to us.
Inalula i sindålu guatu giya siha.The soldier hurried over to them.

Great practice! In the next section, we’ll learn the pattern for talking about going to a proper location, such as “I went to Hagåtña”.

Going “To” a Place by Name

Sometimes we want to talk about movement toward a specific place and refer to that place by name, such as “Seattle”, “Fairbanks” or “Hagåtña.” In these cases, Chamorro commonly uses guatu giya or guatu iya in before the place name.

❓Why Two Phrases? You may notice both guatu iya and guatu giya used in real sentences. Both forms are very closely related. In practice, giya can be understood as a combined form of gi and iya, which is why you may hear either one depending on the speaker or context.

For learners, the important takeaway is that both patterns are used, and you may encounter either in native speech and writing. And if I learn of a clearer preference, these notes will be updated. 🙂

This time, we will use basic transitive sentences to guide our pattern, although you could easily use intransitive sentences too.

We’ll practice with the word order below:

[Basic Transitive Sentence] + guatu (g)iya + Place Name

Our sentence drills are in the table below, and the audio uses the phrase guatu iya, but remember that guatu giya is also used in speech.

ChamoruEnglish
Ha konne’ yu’ guatu (g)iya Hagåtña.He took me over to Hagåtña.
Hu kåtga i palao’an guatu (g)iya Talaifak.I carried the woman over to Talaifak.
Ma chalåni i lalåhi guatu (g)iya Nehalem.They guided the men over to Nehalem.
Un tattiyi siha guatu (g)iya Seattle.You followed them over to Seattle.
In dilalak i taotaomo’na guatu (g)iya Annai.We chased the ancestral spirit over to Annai.

Awesome job! In the next section, we’ll learn how to just use “guatu” to indicate the direction of movement.

Saying “There” Without Saying Where

In the previous examples, we used guatu with other articles to indicate going in the direction of a specific place or person. But we can also just use guatu on its own, to mean “there, in that direction” away from the speaker.

📌Everyday Example: I tend to run late, so a common phrase I use is Ti apmam yu’ guatu (I will be there soon).

This is a good example of how guatu can be used by itself, with the destination understood from context.

Let’s practice using guatu with basic intransitive sentences as our base. We simply put guatu at the end of the sentence.

Our word order is below:

[Basic Intransitive Sentence] +Guatu

Now let’s make some practice sentences. I have also reduplicated all of the verbs to put them in the present tense (and to give some variety in our sentence drills):

ChamoruEnglish
Mamómokkat siha guatu.They (2) are walking over (to) there.
Malålågu yu’ guatu.I am running over (to) there.
Humåhånao ham guatu.We (2) are going over (to) there.
Muñáñangu hao guatu.You are swimming over (to) there.
Gumúgupu siha guatu.They (2) are flying over (to) there.

Great job! In the next section, we’ll practice with the pattern guatu guennao to indicate that we are going in the direction of whomever we are speaking to.

Saying “There” Based on The Other Person

Guatu Guennao: “There, Toward You”

The phrase guatu guennao is used when you want to say “over there, in your direction,” meaning in a direction toward the person being spoken to.2

Because guatu comes first, it tells us there’s movement, and the guennao tells us that it’s in the general direction of the other person—but not necessarily directly to them. If you wanted to be specific about going directly to the person, you’d say something like guatu giya hågu (“toward you / over to you”).

📌Example in English: Imagine you’re at home and talking on the phone with a cousin who’s at a brewery across town. You might tell them, “I’m heading your way later” or even “Hey, I’ll be heading in your direction later”. You’re going in their general direction—maybe to run an errand nearby—but not necessarily directly to them or to the brewery. In Chamorro, this would be a situation for using guatu guennao.

We’ll practice with the structure of putting guatu guennao after a basic intransitive sentence.

The word order is below:

[Basic Intransitive Sentence] + guatu guennao

And our sentence drills are in the table below:

ChamoruEnglish
Mamómokkat siha guatu guennao.They are walking over there, towards you.
Malålågu yu’ guatu guennao.I am running there, towards you.
Humåhånao ham guatu guennao.We are going there, towards you.
Muñáñangu yu’ guatu guennao.I am swimming there, towards you.
Gumúgupu siha guatu guennao.They are flying there, towards you.

Great job! In the next section, we’ll practice with another combination of location words: guatu guihi.

Guatu Guihi: “There, Away From Us”

The phrase guatu guihi is used when we want to be specific about saying “there, in that direction” when it’s somewhere that is far away from both the speaker and the person spoken to.3 Let’s go through an example to understand what this means:

📌Example in English: Let’s build on our previous example. This time, you tell your cousin that you’ll be attending a concert in a completely different city. You might say, “I’ll be heading over there later,” where “over there” clearly refers to a place far away from both of you. In Chamorro, this idea could be expressed using guatu guihi.

We’ll practice using guatu guihi at the end of our basic intransitive sentences.

The word order we’ll use is shown below:

[Basic Intransitive Sentence] + guatu guihi

Now let’s do some sentence drills, which are below:

ChamoruEnglish
Mamómokkat siha guatu guihi.They are walking over (to) there.
Malålågu yu’ guatu guihi.I am running over (to) there.
Humåhånao ham guatu guihi.We are going over (to) there.
Muñáñangu hao guatu guihi.You are swimming over (to) there.
Gumúgupu siha guatu guihi.They are flying over over (to) there.

Awesome job! In the next section, we will learn about the word tumalakguatu and how to use it.

Talking About Facing a Direction

We can also attach the talak- prefix to guatu. The prefix talak- means “to face in a certain direction” and when we attach it to guatu to make talakguatu it means “to face there, in that direction.”

To use this word in a past tense sentence, we can transform the word with the um infix to get tumalakguatu. In this form, we can use it as an intransitive verb.

We will practice using this word in the following sentence structure:

Tumalakguatu + Subject + gi + location

In this sentence, the subject can be a noun, such as “the child” or “the woman”; it can be a yu’ type pronoun; or it could be a person’s name. Just remember that if your noun is a subject, do i + noun, and if your subject is someone’s name, do si + person’s name. We will practice with all three in our sentence drills below:

ChamoruEnglish
Tumalakguatu i amko’ gi tasi.The elder faced in the direction of the ocean.
Tumalakguatu i pale’ gi gima’ Yu’os.The priest faced in the direction of the church.
Tumalakguatu yu’ gi lamasa.I faced in the direction of the table.
Tumalakguatu hao gi puti’on.You faced in the direction of the star.
Tumalakguatu si Alicia gi sabåna. Alicia faced in the direction of the mountain.

💡Practice Tip: To keep things simple in the examples above, I just used gi + location at the end of the sentences. But you can also use other combinations we’ve already learned, such as giya + emphatic pronoun (Tumalakguatu yu’ giya guiya = I faced toward him / I faced him)

Common “Over To” Expressions

Sometimes when we are doing something, we are directing our action over to someone, such as yelling over to our children or calling over to a friend. In these instances, some distance is implied between the person doing the action, and the person receiving the action.

To convey this distance in Chamorro, we can use guatu.

This usage of guatu is best understood in basic transitive sentences, such as “They called the child” or “They yelled at the woman”. We will be modifying these sentences with guatu, by adding it in front of object (ie: the person or thing we are doing the action to).

Here is the basic structure we will practice:

Hu Type Pronoun + Transitive Verb + guatu i + Noun

Now let’s do some example sentences in the table below:

ChamoruEnglish
Ma essalaogue guatu i palao’an.They yelled over to the woman.
Ma ågang guatu i patgon.They called over to the child.
I lahi ha achetge guatu i nobiå-ña.The man winked over to his girlfriend.
Un chatfinu’i guatu i ga’lågu.You cursed over to the dog.
In kantåyi guatu i famalao’an.We sang over to the women.

Great practice! And that concludes our final sentence pattern for this lesson.

Wrap-Up

That wraps up this introductory lesson on guatu. Great job! In this post, we practiced 9 different patterns for using guatu in everyday speech. Specifically, we learned how to use guatu to express the following:

  • Going over to a location, like “the store” or “Hagåtña”
  • Going over to a person, like “him” or “Juan”
  • Combining guatu with guennao and guihi
  • Using the word tumalakguatu to talk about facing in a specific direction
  • Doing an action over to someone with guatu i

Chamorro language patterns for guatu were studied from two main sources: 1) the Nuebu Testamento, published in 2007 by the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa, CNMI and 2) the Revised and Updated Chamorro-English Dictionary. Further clarifications for the usages of guatu, guatu guennao, and guatu guihi were provided by our teacher and native speaker Ray Barcinas.

Notes

  1. “Guatu,” Revised and Updated Chamorro-English Dictionary, accessed February 6, 2026, https://natibunmarianas.org/g/. ↩︎
  2. “Guatu Guennao,” Revised and Updated Chamorro-English Dictionary, accessed February 6, 2026, https://natibunmarianas.org/g/. ↩︎
  3. “Guatu Guihi,” Revised and Updated Chamorro-English Dictionary, accessed February 6, 2026, https://natibunmarianas.org/g/. ↩︎

References

_. 2007. Nuebu testamento. Saipan, CNMI: Diocese of Chalan Kanoa.

_. 2024. Revised and Updated Chamorro-English Dictionary. Inetnun Kutturan Natibun Marianas/ Kkoor Aramasal Marianas (IKNM/KAM). https://natibunmarianas.org/chamorro-dictionary/.

Topping, D. M., & Dungca, B. C. Chamorro Reference Grammar (PALI Language Texts―Micronesia). University of Hawaii Press, 1973.

Topping, Donald M. Spoken Chamorro: With Grammatical Notes and Glossary (Second Edition). University of Hawaii Press, 1980.

    Further Reading

    Topping, D. M., & Dungca, B. C. “Motion Locatives.” In Chamorro Reference Grammar, 115. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1973.

    Topping, D. M., & Ogo, P. M. “Chart of Demonstratives and Location Words”. In Spoken Chamorro with Grammatical Notes and Glossary (PALI Language Texts―Micronesia) (2nd ed.), 181. University of Hawaii Press, 1980.

    Topping, D. M., & Ogo, P. M. “12.12 REPETITION DRILL. Magi and guatu.”. In Spoken Chamorro with Grammatical Notes and Glossary (PALI Language Texts―Micronesia) (2nd ed.), 182. University of Hawaii Press, 1980.

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