Leksion Chamoru: I mas fondamento na estrukturan Chamoru (The most basic Chamorro structure)

One of the most basic of all sentence structures in Chamorro is what I will call a "simple description." These are just sentences with a subject and a description:

• The house is big.
• The car is red.
• The chair is wide.
• The kid is tall.

In Chamorro we use the pattern: description + article

+ subject. (The definite article is "i".) So, here's how we would say the above simple descriptions the Chamorro way:

• Big "i" house.
• Red "i" car.
• Wide "i" chair.
• Tall "i" kid.

To say them completely in Chamorro, we'd say:

• Dånkolo i gima'.
• Agaga' i kareta.
• Fedda' i siya.
• Lokka' i patgon.

When the subject is a proper name, the structure remains the same. The only difference is that we change the article to "si." Here are some examples:

• Maria is pretty. ==> Pretty "si" Maria. ==> Bonita si Maria.
• John is skinny. ==> Skinny "si" John. ==> Dalalai si John (Juan).
• Joe is tall ==> Tall "si" Joe. ==> Lokka' si Joe (Jose).
• Rosa is sick. ==> Sick "si" Rosa. ==> Målångu si Rosa.