In this lesson, you’ll learn how to give simple commands in Chamorro — things like “Stay,” “Go,” or “Go to the car.” You’ll practice how to tell someone what to do using everyday action words, and you’ll see how to add places or times to make your commands more specific. By the end of the lesson, you’ll learn the simple, foundational patterns for giving commands in the language. Happy studying!
Continue reading “How to Say “Stay” in Chamorro – Giving Commands With Intransitive Verbs”
One of the most gratifying things about learning Chamorro is discovering new stories in the language that I have never heard before. The story about the Kakkak, or the Yellow Bittern, is a story that I never heard growing up. I found this version in a legends book from the KPV Collection that was collected and translated by Carmen C. Blas. This narration is done by Jay Che’le, listen and enjoy!
If you are in need of a love song about unrequited love in Chamorro, this is a good one to start with. Even though the grammar is a bit squishy in places, there are a lot of repeated phrases that are short and recognizable. A few months back our practice group wrote down Chamorro lyrics and and English translation for this song, but for the version sung by Glenn “Poochie” Paulino. I couldn’t find a version of that song on Youtube that I was able to embed on this post, so I’ve posted here the version sung by Johnny Sablan. Hope you enjoy it!
Continue reading “Maloffan Hao by Johnny Sablan – Chamorro Lyrics and English Translation”
Pronouns like I, you, them, and her are foundational words in everyday speech—they help us talk about people without needing to say names over and over. In this post, we’ll explore how pronouns work in Chamorro, including the four main pronoun groups, key features that make Chamorro pronouns unique, and the sentence types where each group is used. Whether you’re talking about yourself, asking questions, or referring to others, learning about Chamorro pronouns is a foundational step to building your language ability. Happy studying!
Continue reading “Introduction to Pronouns in Chamorro”
This was a lovely story that I found on Påle’ Eric Forbes’ blog called Estorian Reinhold Mangloña which was told to Påle’ Eric by Richie Mangloña, who heard it from his father Reinhold Atalig Mangloña , who heard it from his Japanese teacher when he was growing up on Luta. We read this story together in one of our Chamorro-language practice groups, and everyone really enjoyed it. The story’s moral of respecting elders gave us all satisfaction, and the Chamorro stretched some of our brains, helping us to learn new vocabulary.
This post includes the Chamorro text with modified spelling, the English translation, and an audio narration by Jay Che’le, since Påle Eric’s original blog post for this story did not include a narration. Enjoy!
Lengguahi-ta 