Ways to say “Yes” in Chamorro

When it comes to speaking Chamorro, most language resources will only include how one should say something. And so this is true for the Chamorro word for “yes”. Most books or even online resources will offer only the formal way to say “yes”, which is hunggan.

While there’s nothing wrong with saying hunggan all the time, a lot of Chamorro speakers tend to use the casual forms of yes in everyday conversation.

The most common response you’ll hear in a conversation will be hå’å, or its variants å’å, ha’a, or a’a. It would be like say yeah or yup.

Another way to say yes would be to say hu’u or u’u. While some speakers may use this as their default, casual response, there are some who interpret and use this to suggest irritation, as in  “Yes, (I heard you!)” or “Yes, (I get it, no need to repeat yourself!)”