NY Times Crossword
May 25, 2017
Erik Agard
(Title shown below)

The same change can be made to each of the words below to create new ones. It does not involve adding or dropping any letters. Can you determine what it is?

RAIN
COIN
GUIANA

HINT:
The change involves changing the position of one of the letters.

Answer:

Moving the I in each word to the front creates a new word:

IRAN
ICON
IGUANA

Note: A word the constructor submitted, but which was not used: CHOIR - which changes to ICHOR, the mythological blood of the gods

Puzzle title: I'LL BE FIRST