“Who?” is one of the most natural ways we learn about the people around us—Who is missing? Who did you call? Who will you ask? In this lesson, you’ll begin learning Chamorro patterns for asking “who” questions using the word håyi (“who”). You’ll practice clear sentence structures for identifying people and for asking about who someone did an action to in the past, present, and future. As always, this post includes Chamorro sentence drills, English translations, and Chamorro audio narrations by Jay Che’le to support your learning. Happy studying!
Contents
- Introduction to “Who” In Chamorro
- Asking Who Fits a Description: “Who is Hungry?”
- Asking Who Someone Is: “Who is Your Spouse?”
- Past Actions: “Who did you talk to?”
- Current Actions: “Who Are You Talking To?”
- Future Actions: “Who Will You Talk To?”
- Lesson Summary
- Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson (TBD)
- Documentation & Further Study
Introduction to “Who” In Chamorro
In Chamorro, the word håyi means “Who?”. While you can simply ask Håyi? on its own, we often want to ask more detailed questions to find out who someone is or who did something.
There are many different patterns of “who” questions in Chamorro, and in this lesson we will start with some of the simplest. Specifically, we’ll begin with identity-style questions, such as:
- “Who is hungry?”
- “Who is your mother?”
- “Who is Juan?”
After that, we’ll start pairing håyi with verbs, to ask about actions—such as who you talked to, who you’re talking to, or who you will talk to:
- Asking about past actions (“Who did you talk to?”)
- Asking about current actions (“Who are you talking to?”)
- Asking about future actions (“Who will you talk to?”)
In the next section, we’ll start building these simple patterns step-by-step so you can being asking your own “who?” questions right away. Let’s get started!
Asking Who Fits a Description: “Who is Hungry?”
Sometimes we want to ask who matches a description—Who is hungry? Who is missing? In Chamorro, these types of questions follow a simple two-word pattern: Håyi + Adjective
Here’s the basic pattern we’ll use:
| Håyi + Adjective |
We’ll practice this with some example sentences below:
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Håyi malångu? | Who is sick? |
| Håyi ñålang? | Who is hungry? |
| Håyi må’u? | Who is thirsty? |
| Håyi atrasao? | Who is late? |
| Håyi fafatta? | Who is absent / missing? |
Great job! In the next section, we’ll stay with this simple structure and learn how to ask who someone is.
Asking Who Someone Is: “Who is Your Spouse?”
Imagine you’re getting to know someone. You may want to ask questions about the people in their life, such as Who is your mother? Who is your spouse?
In these questions, we want to use håyi with nouns such as your mother, your spouse, your boss. These are formed by attaching possessive pronouns to the nouns.
First, let’s look at a few of these words:
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| nanå-mu | your mother |
| tatå-mu | your father |
| asagua-mu | your spouse |
| patgon-mu | your child |
| che’lu-mu | your sibling |
| ma’gas-mu | your boss |
| mediku-mu | your doctor |
Now let’s use these words in full “who” questions. All we need to do is put the word håyi in front of them:
| Håyi + [Noun + Possessive Pronoun] |
Let’s put it together with full example sentences in the table below:
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Håyi nanå-mu? | Who is your mother? |
| Håyi tatå-mu? | Who is your father? |
| Håyi asagua-mu? | Who is your spouse? |
| Håyi patgon-mu? | Who is your child? |
| Håyi che’lu-mu? | Who is your sibling? |
| Håyi ma’gas-mu? | Who is your boss? |
| Håyi mediku-mu? | Who is your doctor? |
But what if you hear a name and don’t know who that person is? Usually our immediate instinct is to ask who that person is, such as Who is Juan? Who is Elsie?
For these questions we use the same pattern as before—just place si + the person’s name after håyi:
| Håyi + si + Person’s Name |
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Håyi si Juan? | Who is Juan? |
| Håyi si Norma? | Who is Norma? |
| Håyi si Carmen? | Who is Carmen? |
Great job! In the next section, we’ll start pairing håyi with verbs so we can ask about actions.
Past Actions: “Who did you talk to?”
Now we’ll shift to asking questions about actions—Who did you talk to? Who did you see? Who did you ask?
We’ll be using Hu Type Pronouns together with Transitive Verbs (actions we do to others).
First, we’ll learn a key two-word phrase that forms the foundation of this section: Håyi + Hu Type Pronoun
Let’s practice the pattern:
| Håyi + Hu Type Pronoun |
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Håyi un… | Who did you… |
| Håyi hu… | Who did I… |
| Håyi ha… | Who did she/he… |
| Håyi ma… | Who did they… |
| Håyi in… | Who did we… (exclusive) |
| Håyi en… | Who did you… (plural) |
| Håyi ta… | Who did we… (inclusive) |
Now we’ll turn this into full questions by adding a transitive verb. The full pattern is:
| Håyi + Hu Type Pronoun + Transitive Verb |
We’ll practice using Håyi un (“Who did you…”) in the drills below:
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Håyi un kuentusi? | Who did you talk to? |
| Håyi un li’i’? | Who did you see? |
| Håyi un ågang? | Who did you call? |
| Håyi un faisen? | Who did you ask? |
| Håyi un ayuda? | Who did you help? |
| Håyi un sangåni? | Who did you tell? |
| Håyi un tattiyi? | Who did you follow? |
In the next section, we’ll adjust this pattern to ask about actions happening right now.
Current Actions: “Who Are You Talking To?”
To ask about actions happening right now, we make one small change: reduplicate the verb.
First, let’s look at how the verbs change with reduplication:
| Root Word | Reduplicated |
|---|---|
| kuentusi | kuentútusi |
| li’i’ | líli’i’ |
| ågang | å’ågang |
| faisen | fáfaisen |
| ayuda | ayúyuda |
| sangåni | sangångåni |
| tattiyi | tattítiyi |
Now let’s use these reduplicated verbs in full questions. We’ll follow the pattern from the previous section:
| Håyi + Hu Type Pronoun + Reduplicated Transitive Verb |
We’ll continue using the phrase chunk Håyi un (“What did you…”) in our sentence drills:
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Håyi un kuentútusi? | Who are you talking to? |
| Håyi un líli’i’? | Who are you seeing? / Who do you see? |
| Håyi un å’ågang? | Who are you calling? |
| Håyi un fáfaisen? | Who are you asking? |
| Håyi un ayúyuda? | Who are you helping? |
| Håyi un sangångåni? | Who are you telling? |
| Håyi un tattítiyi? | Who are you following? |
In the final section, we’ll shift to asking about future actions.
Future Actions: “Who Will You Talk To?”
Now let’s ask about future actions, such as Who will you talk to? Who will you ask?
These questions are formed with the Chamorro future markers. Let’s practice these forms:
| Håyi + Future Marker + Hu Type Pronoun |
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Håyi para un… | Who will you… |
| Håyi para bai hu… | Who will I… |
| Håyi para u… | Who will she/he… |
| Håyi para u ma… | Who will they… |
| Håyi para bai in… | Who will we… (exclusive) |
| Håyi para en… | Who will you… (plural) |
| Håyi para ta… | Who will we… (inclusive) |
To make a complete question, add a transitive verb at the end. Here is the pattern:
| Håyi + Future Marker + Hu Type Pronoun + Transitive Verb |
We’ll practice using Håyi para un… (“Who will you…”) in the drills below:
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Håyi para un kuentusi? | Who will you talk to? |
| Håyi para un li’i’? | Who will you see? |
| Håyi para un ågang? | Who will you call? |
| Håyi para un faisen? | Who will you ask? |
| Håyi para un ayuda? | Who will you help? |
| Håyi para un sangåni? | Who will you tell? |
| Håyi para un tattiyi? | Who will you follow? |
This completes the sentence drills for the lesson. Next, we’ll do a short recap of what we’ve learned.
Lesson Summary
In this lesson, we learned patterns for asking “who” questions in Chamorro using the word håyi (“who”). We started with questions about other people—Who is hungry? Who is your mother? Who is Juan? Then we shifted to asking about actions in the past, present and future tense—Who did you talk to? Who are you talking to? Who will you talk to?
Keep Learning! Continue to the Next Lesson (TBD)
Stay tuned for our next lesson in this series, where we’ll learn simple patterns for “where” questions in Chamorro.
Documentation & Further Study
References
_. 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. “5.2 REPETITION DRILL. Plural possessive pronouns.” In Spoken Chamorro: With Grammatical Notes and Glossary (Second Edition), 61. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980.
Topping, D.M. “5.5 QUESTION-ANSWER DRILL. Hayi and possessive pronouns” In Spoken Chamorro: With Grammatical Notes and Glossary (Second Edition), 62. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980.
Topping, D.M. “5.12 QUESTION-ANSWER DRILL. Hafa and hayi plus transitive clause.” In Spoken Chamorro: With Grammatical Notes and Glossary (Second Edition), 66. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980.
Topping, D.M. “5.17 REPETITION DRILL. Hayi with transitive pronouns.” In Spoken Chamorro: With Grammatical Notes and Glossary (Second Edition), 68. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980.
Topping, D.M. “5.19 QUESTION-ANSWER DRILL. Hayi with transitive pronouns.” In Spoken Chamorro: With Grammatical Notes and Glossary (Second Edition), 68. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980.
Topping, D.M. “5.23 QUESTION DRILL. Hafa and hayi.” In Spoken Chamorro: With Grammatical Notes and Glossary (Second Edition), 70. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980.
Lengguahi-ta 