Leksion Chamoru: Prefix mina'-

Mina'- is a very simple prefix, it is an "ordinal marker." That just means that it takes a "cardinal" number (2, 3, 4...) and changes it to an ordinal (2nd, 3rd, 4th...).

• Dos (two) => Mina'dos (second)
• Bente (twenty) => Mina'bente (twentieth)
• Katotse (fourteen) => Mina'katotse (fourteenth)

Only the number 1 is different,

• Unu (one) => Fine'na/Finene'na/Fine'nana (first)

Fine'na/Finene'na/Fine'nana all come from the root fo'na/mo'na (front).