Basic Actions Part 17: Expressing Likes and Dislikes in Chamorro pt. 4 – “What do you like?”

To conclude this beginner series on how to express likes and dislikes in Chamorro, in this post we’ll cover how to ask more types questions about what we like. We will practice using questions words like håfa (what), månu (which), and håfa na (why) to ask questions like “What do you like?”; “Which do you like?”; and “Why do you like it?” This post includes sentence drills in Chamorro, English translations, and audio for the Chamorro. Happy studying!

Contents
What do you like? Which do you like? Why do you like it? Negative questions with ti Basic Conversation Practice References

What Do You Like?

Use the basic structure to ask simple questions like, “What do you like?” For these questions, we just put the question word håfa in front of our most basic statements. Use this structure:

Håfa + Ya- + Possessive Pronoun

And now for basic sentence drills:

Chamoru	English
Håfa ya-hu?	What do I like?
Håfa ya-mu?	What do you like?
Håfa ya-ña?	What does she/he/it like?
Håfa ya-ta?	What do we like?
Håfa yan-måmi?	What do we like?
Håfa yan-miyu?	What do you (all) like?
Håfa yan-ñiha?	What do they like?

Which Do You Like?

Finally, we can also ask questions with månu at the beginning of our sentences to ask “Which do you like?” The basic structure is:

Månu + Ya- + Possessive Pronoun

Chamoru	English
Månu ya-hu?	Which do I like?
Månu ya-mu?	Which do you like?
Månu ya-ña?	Which does she/he/it like?
Månu ya-ta?	Which do we like?
Månu yan-måmi?	Which do we like?
Månu yan-miyu?	Which do you (all) like?
Månu yan-ñiha?	Which do they like?

Which Coffee Do You Like?

We can also be more specific in our “which” questions by adding a noun, to ask questions like “Which coffee do you like?” or “Which plant does she like?” To do this, just add the linking particle na and a noun after månu:

Månu + na + Noun + Ya- + Possessive Pronoun

Now let’s get used to this pattern by practicing with ya-mu and different nouns:

Noun	Chamoru	English
sabot	Månu na sabot ya-mu?	Which flavor do you like?
tinekcha’	Månu na tinekcha’ ya-mu?	Which fruit do you like?
nengkånno’	Månu na nengkånno’ ya-mu?	Which food do you like?
gimen	Månu na gimen ya-mu?	Which drink do you like?

And now let’s practice with a variety of pronouns and nouns:

Chamoru	English
Månu na kafé ya-hu?	Which coffee do I like?
Månu na ga’lågu ya-mu?	Which dog do you like?
Månu na kulot ya-ña?	Which color does she like?
Månu na kånton tåsi ya-ta?	Which beach do we like?
Månu na kákanta yan-måmi?	Which singer do we like?
Månu na fafa’na’gue yan-miyu?	Which teacher do you like?
Månu na guihan yan-ñiha?	Which fish do they like?

Why Do You Like It?

Now we will start to ask more types of questions about likes and dislikes by adding håfa na, which means “why”, in front of our basic sentences. We can begin the most basic question: “Why do you like it?” Let’s use the following sentence structure:

Håfa na + Ya- + Possessive Pronoun

And here are basic sentence drills with all of the pronouns. Please note that the word “it” is implied in all of them.

Chamoru	English
Håfa na ya-hu?	Why do I like it?
Håfa na ya-mu?	Why do you like it?
Håfa na ya-ña?	Why does he/she/it like it?
Håfa na ya-ta?	Why do we like it?
Håfa na yan-miyu?	Why do you (all) like it?
Håfa na yan-måmi?	Why do we like it?
Håfa na yan-ñiha?	Why do they like it?

Why do you like coffee?

We can also expand on our questions with håfa na to ask about specific likes and dislikes, such as with the question, “Why do you like coffee?” Just add a noun at the end of our basic questions that use håfa na, as shown in this basic sentence structure:

Håfa na + Ya- + Possessive Pronoun + Noun

Chamoru	English
Håfa na ya-hu kafé?	Why do I like coffee?
Håfa na ya-mu fina’mames?	Why do you like dessert?
Håfa na ya-ña lemmai?	Why does he/she/it like breadfruit?
Håfa na ya-ta chån betde?	Why do we like green tea?
Håfa na yan-miyu kelaguen gåmson?	Why do you (all) like octopus kelaguen?
Håfa na yan-måmi dåndan?	Why do we like music?
Håfa na yan-ñiha eskuela?	Why do they like school?

Negative Questions With Ti

We can make some of our previous sentences negative by adding the negative marker ti. The first set we will make negative are the questions with håfa, to make sentences such as “What do I not like?”

Håfa + Ti + Ya- + Possessive Pronoun

And here are some practice drills:

Chamoru	English
Håfa ti ya-hu?	What do I not like?
Håfa ti ya-mu?	What do you not like?
Håfa ti ya-ña?	What does she/he/it not like?
Håfa ti ya-ta?	What do we not like?
Håfa ti yan-måmi?	What do we not like?
Håfa ti yan-miyu?	What do you (all) not like?
Håfa ti yan-ñiha?	What do they not like?

We can also make our why questions negative by putting the negative marker ti after the håfa na, so we can ask questions such as “Why don’t you like it?” We’ll use this structure:

Håfa na + Ti + Ya- + Possessive Pronoun

And now for some sentence drills:

Chamoru	English
Håfa na ti ya-hu?	Why don’t I like it?
Håfa na ti ya-mu?	Why don’t you like it?
Håfa na ti ya-ña?	Why doesn’t he/she/it like it?
Håfa na ti ya-ta?	Why don’t we like it?
Håfa na ti yan-miyu?	Why don’t you (all) like it?
Håfa na ti yan-måmi?	Why don’t we like it?
Håfa na ti yan-ñiha?	Why don’t they like it?

And we can also put this negative marker ti in our why questions that have nouns, so we can ask questions like “Why do I like coffee?” Here is the sentence structure we’ll use:

Håfa na + Ti + Ya- + Possessive Pronoun + Noun

Here are sentence drills to practice this structure:

Chamoru	English
Håfa na ti ya-hu kafé?	Why don’t I like coffee?
Håfa na ti ya-mu fina’mames?	Why don’t you like dessert?
Håfa na ti ya-ña lemmai?	Why doesn’t he/she/it like breadfruit?
Håfa na ti ya-ta chån betde?	Why don’t we like green tea?
Håfa na ti yan-miyu kelaguen gåmson?	Why don’t you (all) like octopus kelaguen?
Håfa na ti yan-måmi dåndan?	Why don’t we like music?
Håfa na ti yan-ñiha eskuela?	Why don’t they like school?

Basic Conversation Practice

Now we will do some basic dialogue practice with these questions. For responses, we can pull from any of the example sentences from the previous posts about expressing likes and dislikes in Chamorro.

Chamorro	English
Håfa na ya-mu kafé? Ya-hu kafé sa’ mala’et.	Why do you like coffee? I like coffee because it’s bitter.
Håfa na ya-ña kelaguen mañåhåk? Ya-ña sa’ gaisabot.	Why does she like rabbitfish kelaguen? She likes it because it’s flavorful.
Håfa na ti ya-ña chån å’paka? Ti ya-ña chån å’paka sa’ matå’pang.	Why doesn’t she like white tea? She doesn’t like white tea because it’s bland.
Håfa ya-mu? Ya-hu te’ok na kafé.	What do you like? I like strong coffee.
Håfa ti ya-mu? Ti ya-hu niyok.	What do you not like? I don’t like coconut.
Månu na hugeti ya-ña? Ya-ña i alupai.	Which toy does she like? She likes the dolphin.
Månu na fina’mames ya-mu? Ya-hu i potu.	Which dessert do you like? I like the steamed rice cake.

Lesson Study Tip: If you are still struggling to get the word order correct when you are practicing these sentences, try to drill the sentences you would say in real life. Replace the pronouns or nouns in the example sentences in this lesson to make questions you would say in your own life. Example: Instead of saying Månu na fina’mames ya-mu? just swap out the fina’mames with something else, like gimen or sabot. Then you get a sentence like Månu na gimen ya-mu? (Which drink do you like?) or Månu na sabot ya-mu? (Which flavor do you like?)

And congratulations, you made it to the end of this beginner mini-series on expressing likes and dislikes in Chamorro!

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References

Topping, D. M., & Ogo, P. M. (1980). Spoken Chamorro with Grammatical Notes and Glossary (PALI Language Texts―Micronesia) (2nd ed.). University of Hawaii Press.

• Question Word Håfa with Ya-: pg. 133-134, 137
• Question Word Månu with Ya- and Nouns : pg. 216-217