Let’s talk prepositions and words related to position. Let’s start with a simple example:
poma e en mesa - The apple is on the table.
Prepositions are just like any other word in Mini (they are verbs, nouns, and any other type at the same time), therefore we need to mark that it is being used as a preposition. For that we use the particle “e” then we follow the preposition we want to use: “e en” in the example.
More examples:
poma e baka de mesa - The apple is behind the table.
poma e fore de mesa - The apple is in front of the table.
poma e lado de mesa - The apple is on the side of the table - The apple is next to the table.
poma e inta de mesa - The apple is between the tables.
poma e nea de mesa - The apple is near the table.
poma e supa de mesa - The apple is above the table.
poma e unda de mesa - The apple is under the table.
It is very common to elide “e”, “en”, “de” when using prepositions because they are either understood from context or the other particles (“a”, “i”) and sentence position make it clear what we are talking about
mi oranje e en fore de igi - mi oranje e fore igi - mi oranje fore igi - My orange is in front of the tree.
Conversation time:
Mia: Leo, i favo dona a da pen go mi - Leo, please give me the pencil.
Leo: ke pen? - What pencil?
Mia: da pen. si e en mesa - That pencil. It is on the table.
Leo: tu i vole a mi pen? - You want my pencil?
Mia: no. tu pen e en tu pen-kaja - No. Your pencil is in your pen case.
Leo: an mi pen-kaja e en mesa - And my pen case is on the table.
Mia: ja. pero mi i nese a mi pen an mi pen e en mesa. si e no en tu pen-kaja u no en mi pen-kaja u no en some kaja - Correct. But I need my pencil and my pencil is on the table. It is not in your pen case or in my pen case or in some case.
Leo: pero mi pen-kaja e nea de tu pen-kaja - But my pen case is near your pen case.
Mia: i mori a mi! - Kill me!
Leo: mi i en joke - I’m joking.
Mia: bon. den, tu i kan dona a mi pen go mi? - Ok. Then, can you give me my pencil?
Leo: tu pen? da pen e inta de mi-ale pen-kaja? - Your pencil? That pencil between our pen cases?
Mia: ja! - Yes!
Leo: mi i no vole - I don’t want to.
Grammar
Possessives
Personal pronouns used as adjectives become possessives:
tu i manja a mi poma - You eat my apple.
tu kaja - Your box.
ale mi kosa - All my things.
You can also use “de”, “e”:
poma de Tom - The apple of Tom.
poma e Tom - Tom’s apple.
Although the “e” form is very rare.
Prepositions
They are:
de - from, of, about, out of, made of.
en - in, at, on.
go - to, for, towards.
kon - with.
sama - like, as, than, same.
A prepositional phrase follows the thing it describes. In the case of a verb being described, it can follow the direct object.
Tim e kon Tom - Tim is with Tom.
mi e de México - I’m from México.
Tom i labora en akonto-siensa - Tom works in accounting.
da e go tu - That’s for you.
mi e sama tu - I’m like you.
Singular and plural
Every noun in Mini is both singular and plural:
mi i manja a poma - I eat an apple - I eat apples.
Plurality is usually clear from context, otherwise you can use number words and quantity words like “mui”, “some”, “meno”.