Misafir gelince kolonya sıkmak güzel bir adettir.

to be

Breakdown of Misafir gelince kolonya sıkmak güzel bir adettir.

• güzel: nice
• bir: a
• gelince: when it comes/arrives

Questions & Answers about Misafir gelince kolonya sıkmak güzel bir adettir.

What does the suffix -ince in gelince do?

The suffix -ince attaches directly to a verb stem (here gel-, “come”) to mean “when” or “once (something happens)”. So gelince = “when (someone) comes.”

Why isn’t misafir marked with any case ending in the clause Misafir gelince?

In Turkish, the subject of a clause stays in the nominative (unmarked) case. Here misafir (“guest”) is the subject of gelince, so it appears without any suffix.

Why doesn’t kolonya take the accusative suffix -yı/-yi/-yu/-yü before sıkmak?

Kolonya sıkmak is an infinitive phrase (“to spray cologne”), and objects in such non-finite constructions are often left unmarked to express indefiniteness (“some cologne”). If you wanted to specify “the cologne,” you could say kolonyayı sıkmak, but here it’s general.

Doesn’t sıkmak normally mean “to squeeze”? Why is it used with kolonya?