In Chamorro, the word nihi is one of those small but powerful words that enhances your speaking. It means “let’s go,” but it can also do much more than that. With nihi, you can invite someone to begin an activity, encourage others to join in, or talk about being together with others. In this post, we’ll start learning some of the common ways nihi is used in Chamorro. We’ll focus on learning how to use nihi to talk about going to different places (i.e.: “Let’s go to the beach”) or going and doing an activity together (i.e.: “Let’s go and swim”).
You’ll find lesson notes, example sentences, and interactive study tools to help you learn these patterns. Chamorro audio recordings will be added at a later date. Happy studying!
Contents
🌱Introduction to Nihi
If we want to say “Let’s go” in Chamorro, we can just say the word Nihi.
If Jay and I are sitting at home and I’m ready for us to go out, I can simply turn to him and say Nihi! (“Let’s go!”) Or if I’m with a group of cousins and it’s time for us to get in the car and drive somewhere, I can also turn to them and say, Nihi!
But sometimes we may want to say more than just “Let’s go!” Maybe we want to say where we’re going, such as “Let’s go to the party!” Or maybe we’ll want to say what we’re going to go and do, such as “Let’s go swimming” or “Let’s go walk.”
In this post, we’ll be learning the patterns for saying those types of sentences. To do so, we’ll be applying the following concepts:
- The basic phrase of Nihi ta
- Using Nihi ta with verbs
- When there are 2 people
- When there are 3 or more people
In the next section, we will build our foundational phrases with the words nihi and hånao to talk about going to specific places.
🌱How to Say “Let’s Go to the Beach”
In this section we’ll learn patterns with nihi (“let’s go”) and hånao (“to go”) so we can say things like “Let’s go to the beach” or “Let’s go to the party.” We’ll also be learning the patterns for when there are 2 people versus when there are 3 or more people.
🌱For 2 People
If we want to say “Let’s go [to a place]” and there are only two of us, we can start our sentence with the phrase Nihi ta hånao, followed by where we’re going. The full pattern is shown below:
| Nihi ta hånao + guatu gi + Location |
We open our sentence with Nihi ta hånao (“let us go”) followed by guatu gi (“over to the”) and then the location we want to go to.
Full example sentences are shown below:
Audio Note: Chamorro audio recordings will be added at a later date. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Nihi ta hånao guatu gi kantun tåsi. | Let’s (us 2) go over to the beach. |
| Nihi ta hånao guatu gi giput. | Let’s (us 2) go over to the party. |
| Nihi ta hånao guatu gi siudå. | Let’s (us 2) go over to the city. |
| Nihi ta hånao guatu gi tenda. | Let’s (us 2) go over to the store. |
| Nihi ta hånao guatu gi hatdin. | Let’s (us 2) go over to the garden. |
Great job! Now let’s learn how to say these sentences when there are 3 or more of us.
🌱For 3+ People
If there are 3 or more of us, we need to use the verb fanhånao. This is just the verb hånao transformed with the plural fan- prefix to reflect that there are 3 or more people.
We use the same pattern as before, but we replace hånao with fanhånao:
| Nihi ta fanhånao + guatu gi + Location |
Now let’s modify our practice sentences from the previous section, replacing hånao with fanhånao:
Audio Note: Chamorro audio recordings will be added at a later date. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Nihi ta fanhånao guatu gi kantun tåsi. | Let’s (3+) go over to the beach. |
| Nihi ta fanhånao guatu gi giput. | Let’s (3+) go over to the party. |
| Nihi ta fanhånao guatu gi siudå. | Let’s (3+) go over to the city. |
| Nihi ta fanhånao guatu gi tenda. | Let’s (3+) go over to the store. |
| Nihi ta fanhånao guatu gi hatdin. | Let’s (3+) go over to the garden. |
In the next section, use our interactive study tool to learn and practice these patterns.
⚡ Practice It: “Let’s Go” in Chamorro
Use the interactive study tool below to learn and practice the sentences above. Start in Learn Mode to start associating the Chamorro words with their context, then move into Recall Mode for guided practice in building these phrases on your own.
Great job! In the next section, we’ll learn how to pair nihi with other verbs, to talk about what activities we are going to do.
🌱How to Say “Let’s Go Swim”
In this first section, we are going to pair nihi with some intransitive verbs – verbs that just have the subject doing the action. We’ll also learn the forms for when there are 2 people versus a group of 3 or more.
🌱For 2 People
If I am talking to just one other person and I want to say “Let’s go swim” or “Let’s go eat”, all I need to do is pair the phrase nihi ta with the verb in its future tense form.
Here’s the sentence pattern we will practice with:
| Nihi ta + future tense intransitive verb |
Let’s practice with some complete sentences in the table below:
Audio Note: Chamorro audio recordings will be added at a later date. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Nihi ta ñangu. | Let’s (us 2) go swim. |
| Nihi ta famokkat. | Let’s (us 2) go walk. |
| Nihi ta chochu. | Let’s (us 2) go eat. |
| Nihi ta deskånsa. | Let’s (us 2) go rest. |
| Nihi ta facho’chu’. | Let’s (us 2) go work. |
Great work! Now let’s practice this pattern when there are 3 or more people.
🌱For 3+ People
If our group is going to be 3 or more people, we transform our intransitive verbs with the plural fan- prefix.
Let’s start by transforming our verbs from the previous section with the plural fan- prefix:
Audio Note: Chamorro audio recordings will be added at a later date. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
| For 1-2 People | For 3+ People |
|---|---|
| ñangu | fanñangu |
| famokkat | fanmamokkat |
| chochu | fañochu |
| deskånsa | fandeskånsa |
| facho’chu’ | fanmacho’chu’ |
And now let’s practice using these verbs in our sentences. We’ll use the same structure as before, but this time we’ll be using the verbs modified with the plural fan- prefix:
| Nihi ta + [ plural fan- + intransitive verb ] |
Audio Note: Chamorro audio recordings will be added at a later date. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
| Chamoru | English |
|---|---|
| Nihi ta fanñangu. | Let’s (3+) go swim. |
| Nihi ta fanmamokkat. | Let’s (3+) go walk. |
| Nihi ta fañochu. | Let’s (3+) go eat. |
| Nihi ta fandeskånsa. | Let’s (3+) go rest. |
| Nihi ta fanmacho’chu’. | Let’s (3+) go work. |
⚡ Practice It: “Let’s Go Swim”
Use the interactive study tool below to learn and practice the sentence patterns from above. Start in Learn Mode to become comfortable with the Chamorro words and phrases. Move into Recall Mode for guided practice in producing these sentences.
📝Summary
And that’s it for this lesson! In this post we started using the word nihi and learned how it can be paired with intransitive verbs. We practiced the following patterns:
- Using nihi by itself to say “Let’s go”
- Using nihi with the verb hånao and locations to talk about going to specific places
- Using nihi with intransitive verbs to talk about going and doing specific activities
Note About Methodology: The Chamorro sentence patterns in this post were compiled from multiple written sources. While the examples have been adapted for clarity and practice, they are based on authentic Chamorro usage across a variety of texts. This post reflects patterns I have observed and synthesized from these materials.