We talk about what we have every day—I have a meeting. I don’t have a question. Do you have a pen? In Chamorro, these everyday ideas follow a clear patter that’s straightforward and easy to apply. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say what you have, what you don’t have, and how to ask others if they have something. Step by step, you’ll practice real-life examples using common topics like cars, phones, family members, food, drinks, and pets—so you can start using these patterns in natural conversation right away. As always, we’ve included Chamorro sentence drills, English translations and Chamorro audio by Jay Che’le to support your learning. Happy studying!

Contents

1. Introduction to Have / Not Have in Chamorro
2. Saying What You Have: “I have a car”
3. Saying What You Don’t Have: “I don’t have a car”
4. Asking Questions: “Do you have a car?”
5. Food, Drinks and Animals: “I have a dog”
6. Summary
7. Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson
8. Documentation & Further Study
   1. Notes
   2. References
   3. Further Reading

Introduction to Have / Not Have in Chamorro

One Chamorro pattern for talking about what we have and don’t have uses the words guaha (“there is”)¹ and tåya’ (“there is not”)². On their own, these words tell us whether something exists. But when combined with other words, they help us say things like: I have a car. I don’t have children. Do you have a phone?

In this lesson, we’ll build these sentences step by step:

• Saying what you have: “I have a car”
• Saying what you don’t have: “I don’t have a car”
• Asking someone if they have something: “Do you have a car?”

After establishing the sentence patterns, we’ll end with some drills about food, drinks and animals to practice their specific structures.

In the next section we’ll begin with the basic pattern and build from there.

Saying What You Have: “I have a car”

We’ll start with the basic pattern to say what we have: I have a car. I have a question. I have children. These sentences follow a simple pattern: guaha + what we have.

The “what we have” part are phrases like my car, my question, my children. We make these words by attaching a possessive pronoun to the end of a noun.

First, let’s look at some examples:

Chamoru	English
karetå-hu	my car
finaisen-hu	my question
tilifon-hu	my phone
salåppe’-ku	my money
famagu’on-hu	my children
asagua-hu	my spouse

❓What About The Other Pronouns? To keep this lesson focused, we’re practicing with “my” and, later on, “your”. The same pattern also works with other pronouns, such as: karetå-ña, finaisen-ta, tilifon-miyu, salåppe’-ñiha, famagu’on-måmi, asagua-ña.

Now we’ll turn these into full sentences by adding guaha to the beginning:

Guaha + [Noun + Possessive Pronoun]

We’ll practice using guaha with our possessive phrases in the drills below:

Chamoru	English
Guaha karetå-hu.	I have a car.
Guaha finaisen-hu.	I have a question.
Guaha tilifon-hu.	I have a phone.
Guaha salåppe’-ku.	I have money.
Guaha famagu’on-hu.	I have children.
Guaha asagua-hu.	I have a spouse.

In the next section we’ll learn how modify the pattern and say what we don’t have.

Saying What You Don’t Have: “I don’t have a car”

Now we’ll make one small change to our sentences to talk about what we don’t have: replace guaha with tåya’.

Here is the full pattern we’ll practice:

Tåya’ + [Noun + Possessive Pronoun]

We’ll continue using our possessive phrases from the previous section in the drills below:

Chamoru	English
Tåya’ karetå-hu.	I don’t have a car.
Tåya’ finaisen-hu.	I don’t have a question.
Tåya’ tilifon-hu.	I don’t have a phone.
Tåya’ salåppe’-ku.	I don’t have money.
Tåya’ famagu’on-hu.	I don’t have children.
Tåya’ asagua-hu.	I don’t have a spouse.

In the next section we’ll learn how to ask questions about what others have and don’t have.

Asking Questions: “Do you have a car?”

What if we want to ask a question like Do you have a car? Do you have a phone? Do you have kids?

To form these questions, we’ll place kao guaha (“does there exist”) in front of what we have. In other words, we just add the question word kao to the beginning of our “have” sentences.

First, let’s look at some new phrases we’ll use when speaking to another person: your car, your phone, your children.

Chamoru	English
karetå-mu	your car
finaisen-mu	your question
tilifon-mu	your phone
salåppe’-mu	your money
famagu’on-mu	your children
asagua-mu	your spouse

We’ll turn these into full questions by adding kao guaha to the beginning:

Kao Guaha + [Noun + Possessive Pronoun]

Chamoru	English
Kao guaha karetå-mu?	Do you have a car?
Kao guaha finaisen-mu?	Do you have a question?
Kao guaha tilifon-mu?	Do you have a phone?
Kao guaha salåppe’-mu?	Do you have money?
Kao guaha famagu’on-mu?	Do you have children?
Kao guaha asagua-mu?	Do you have a spouse?

Now how would we respond to these questions?

Imagine that someone asks you Do you have children? and you want to respond with No, I don’t have children. For this reply, we respond with the “don’t have” statement. Remember to modify the pronoun in your response: Do you have children? No, I don’t have children.

We’ll practice these replies in the drills below:

Kao Guaha ___-mu? / Tåya’ ___-hu.

Finaisen	Ineppi’
Kao guaha karetå-mu?	Tåya’ karetå-hu No, I don’t have a car.
Kao guaha finaisen-mu?	Tåya’ finaisen-hu. No, I don’t have a question.
Kao guaha tilifon-mu?	Tåya’ tilifon-hu. No, I don’t have a phone.
Kao guaha salåppe’-mu?	Tåya’ salåppe’-ku. No, I don’t have money.
Kao guaha famagu’on-mu?	Tåya’ famagu’on-hu. No, I don’t have children.
Kao guaha asagua-mu?	Tåya’ asagua-hu. No, I don’t have a spouse.

❓Where is Åhe’ / Åhi’? You may have noticed that we are not using the word åhi’ in our replies. It is omitted because saying åhi’ tåya’ is not the natural pattern in Chamorro. When answering a kao guaha question, simply saying tåya’ already means “no”. If you’d like more practice, see the lesson on Chamorro patterns for saying “no”.

What if we wanted to reply to the same question, but with “Yes, I have kids”? In this situation, our reply can use hunggan followed by the “have” statement.

The question and answer pattern is shown below:

Kao Guaha ___-mu? / Hunggan, guaha ___-hu.

Finaisen	Ineppi’
Kao guaha karetå-mu?	Hunggan, guaha karetå-hu Yes, I have a car.
Kao guaha finaisen-mu?	Hunggan, guaha finaisen-hu. Yes, I have a question.
Kao guaha tilifon-mu?	Hunggan, guaha tilifon-hu. Yes, I have a phone.
Kao guaha salåppe’-mu?	Hunggan, guaha salåppe’-ku. Yes, I have money.
Kao guaha famagu’on-mu?	Hunggan, guaha famagu’on-hu. Yes, I have children.
Kao guaha asagua-mu?	Hunggan, guaha asagua-hu. Yes, I have a spouse.

Food, Drinks and Animals: “I have a dog”

Remember that with food, drinks and animals we use the special form of attaching the posessive pronoun to a classifier, rather than directly to the noun. This enables us to talk about the food and drinks that we’ll consume and the pets or livestock we may have.

For a full review on these forms, see my lessons on talking about your beverages, talking about your food and talking about your pets.

We’ll do some practice with guaha, tåya’, and kao guaha with these special forms. First, let’s look at some new phrases with these forms:

Chamoru	English
ga’-hu ga’lågu	my dog
ga’-hu katu	my cat
na’-hu lemmai	my breadfruit
na’-hu hineksa’	my cooked rice
gimen-hu kafé	my coffee
gimen-hu chå	my tea

Now we’ll use these in “have” statements by putting guaha in the front:

Chamoru	English
Guaha ga’-hu ga’lågu.	I have a dog.
Guaha ga’-hu katu.	I have a cat.
Guaha na’-hu lemmai.	I have breadfruit.
Guaha na’-hu hineksa’.	I have cooked rice.
Guaha gimen-hu kafé.	I have coffee.
Guaha gimen-hu chå.	I have tea.

If we want to say sentences like I don’t have a dog, I don’t have coffee, we just swap out the guaha for tåya’. We’ll practice these drills below:

Chamoru	English
Tåya’ ga’-hu ga’lågu.	I don’t have a dog.
Tåya’ ga’-hu katu.	I don’t have a cat.
Tåya’ na’-hu lemmai.	I don’t have breadfruit.
Tåya’ na’-hu hineksa’.	I don’t have cooked rice.
Tåya’ gimen-hu kafé.	I don’t have coffee.
Tåya’ gimen-hu chå.	I don’t have tea.

And finally, we can do some question and answer practice. But first, we’ll modify our phrases for speaking to another person:

Chamoru	English
ga’-mu ga’lågu	your dog
ga’-mu katu	your cat
na’-mu lemmai	your breadfruit
na’-mu hineksa’	your cooked rice
gimen-mu kafé	your coffee
gimen-mu chå	your tea

Now we’ll use those phrases in full question and answer practice with kao guaha, and forming replies with tåya’ or hunggan guaha:

Chamoru	English
Kao guaha ga’-mu ga’lågu? Do you have a dog?	Hunggan guaha ga’-hu ga’lågu. Yes I have a dog.
Kao guaha ga’-mu katu? Do you have a cat?	Tåya’ ga’-hu katu. No, I don’t have a cat.
Kao guaha na’-mu lemmai? Do you have breadfruit?	Hunggan, guaha na’-hu lemmai. Yes, I have breadfruit.
Kao guaha na’-mu hineksa’? Do you have cooked rice?	Tåya’ na’-hu hineksa’. No, I don’t have cooked rice.
Kao guaha gimen-mu kafé? Do you have coffee?	Hunggan, guaha gimen-hu kafé. Yes, I have coffee.
Kao guaha gimen-mu chå? Do you have tea?	Tåya’ gimen-hu chå. No, I don’t have tea.

This completes the sentence drills for the lesson. Next, we’ll do a recap of what we’ve learned.

Summary

In this lesson, we learned one of the patterns for saying what we have and don’t have in Chamorro, using the words guaha (“there is, there exists”) and tåya’ (“there is no, there does not exist”). We started with basic patterns—I have a car. I don’t have a car. Then we expanded to some question and answer practice with the phrase kao guaha (“is there”). We wrapped up the lesson by practicing these patterns with food, drinks and animals—common things that often feature in “have” and “have not” statements, but follow different patterns because of their classifiers.

Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson

When you are ready, click the link below to continue to the next lesson to learn how to talk about presence and absence with the words gaigi and taigui:

How to Say “I’m Here” in Chamorro – Using Gaigi and Taigui

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Documentation & Further Study

Notes

1. “Guaha,” Revised and Updated Chamorro-English Dictionary, accessed February 16, 2026, https://natibunmarianas.org/g/. ↩︎
2. “Tåya’,” Revised and Updated Chamorro-English Dictionary, accessed February 16, 2026, https://natibunmarianas.org/t/. ↩︎

References

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

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

Further Reading

Topping, D.M. “3.14 REPETITION DRILL. Use of guaha with possessive pronoun hu.” In Spoken Chamorro: With Grammatical Notes and Glossary (Second Edition), 36. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980.

Topping, D.M. “3.16 REPETITION DRILL. Questions and answers using kao with guaha in the questions, and hunggan plus long responses for the answers.” In Spoken Chamorro: With Grammatical Notes and Glossary (Second Edition), 38. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980.

Topping, D.M. “3.19 REPETITION DRILL. Plural possessive pronoun forms.” In Spoken Chamorro: With Grammatical Notes and Glossary (Second Edition), 39. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980.

Topping, D.M. “3.20 SUBSTITUTION DRILL. Use of guaha with plural possessive pronouns.” In Spoken Chamorro: With Grammatical Notes and Glossary (Second Edition), 40. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980.