Your Grandmother's Cherokee

Preserving the Cherokee language, one word at a time.

Search the Dictionary Using English

The free trial version has two root words, GO and HELP that produce more than 2400 word/sentences.

The full version has 60 commonly used root words that produce more than 40,000 word/sentences. View the full list of root words, persons, and tenses.

Cherokee people, actions, and tenses are different from English. They do not match English exactly. They have their own, consistent, Cherokee patterns.

In order to make the dictionary work best searching in English, choose from these people, root words, and tenses.

More than 125 root words are now available, the most commonly used words. These make more than 70,000 entries. Free upgrades with additional root words and all their forms will be sent throughout the first year of your subscription.

Many things we say in English are “idioms,” expressions that don’t mean exactly what the words say. These will not translate into Cherokee.

To make any Cherokee word/sentence into a question, add –sgo or –tsu to the end. For example:
tsayosiha = you are hungry.
Tsayosihasg? = are you hungry?
In Oklahoma dialect, only the –s is pronounced: tsayosihas?

For more information on how to make longer sentences using the Cherokee word/sentences see our courses, beginning with Level 1. Two free demo lessons are available on the website.

WHO IS DOING THE ACTION
I You (2)
You You (3+)
You (1) and I S/he or it
You all and I They
S/he and I They (alive)
They and I They (not alive or unknown)
You (1)

HOW AND WHEN THE ACTION IS HAPPENING
present I am going
command/immediate I just went/just about to go
present continual/habitual I go
future continual/habitual I will be going
past continual/habitual I was going
past continual/habitual, definitely I was going, definitely
past continual/habitual, they say I was going, they say
future one point in time I will go
past one point in time I went
past one point in time, definitely I went, definitely
past one point in time, they say I went, they say
possible future/infinitive I to go
ROOT WORDS
go help