Learn Hardcore Turkish: Kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa bile herkes sırayla konuşuyor. - Even if the club meeting is crowded, everyone speaks in turn.

kulüp toplantısı – “a club meeting / the club meeting” in a more general, type-of-event sense.
- Sounds like you’re talking about club meetings as a kind of thing.
kulübün toplantısı – literally “the meeting of the club”.
- Feels more specific and owned: that meeting which belongs to that club.

In your sentence:

Kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa bile herkes sırayla konuşuyor.

the idea is more general: “Even if a club meeting is crowded, everyone speaks in turn.”
So kulüp toplantısı fits better than kulübün toplantısı, which would point more to one particular meeting.

How does olsa bile work grammatically, and what does it mean?

olsa bile is made of:

ol- – the verb “to be / to become / to exist”
-sa – conditional suffix (“if”) → olsa = “if it is / if it were”
bile – “even”

Together olsa bile usually means:

“even if it is …”
“although it is …” / “even though it is …” (depending on context)

In your sentence:

kalabalık olsa bile ≈ “even if (it is) crowded” / “even though it is crowded”

So the structure is literally: “Even if the club meeting is crowded, everyone is speaking in turn.”

Could we say kalabalık bile olsa instead of kalabalık olsa bile? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say both:

kalabalık olsa bile
kalabalık bile olsa

Meaning-wise they are almost the same: “even if it is crowded”.

The difference is emphasis:

kalabalık olsa bile – more neutral
kalabalık bile olsa – emphasizes “even crowded” a bit more, like:
- “Even when it’s crowded of all things…”

In everyday speech, both are natural. In your sentence, either order sounds fine:

Kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa bile herkes sırayla konuşuyor.
Kulüp toplantısı kalabalık bile olsa herkes sırayla konuşuyor.

Can we replace olsa bile with olsa da? What is the difference?

You can say:

Kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa da herkes sırayla konuşuyor.

olsa da and olsa bile are very close:

olsa da ≈ “although it is / even though it is”
olsa bile ≈ “even if it is / even though it is”

Nuance:

bile has a stronger “even” feeling.
-sa da is a bit more neutral concession (“although”).

In this sentence, both are acceptable; olsa bile just highlights the “even” idea slightly more strongly.

Why is there no separate word for “is” before kalabalık?

Turkish usually drops the present tense “to be” in simple statements with adjectives or nouns. There is no separate word like English “is/are” here.

So:

Toplantı kalabalık. = “The meeting is crowded.”
Hava güzel. = “The weather is nice.”
Ben öğretmenim. = “I am a teacher.”

In your sentence, “(is) crowded” is expressed simply as kalabalık, and the “be” idea is carried by olsa in kalabalık olsa bile.

Why is konuşuyor (present continuous) used instead of konuşur (aorist)?

Both forms are possible but they feel different:

konuşuyor – present continuous:
- “is speaking / are speaking”
- describes what is happening now or a situation you can imagine as currently unfolding.
konuşur – aorist (broad present):
- “speaks / will speak / generally speaks”
- used for habits, general truths, rules.

In your sentence:

Kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa bile herkes sırayla konuşuyor.

With konuşuyor, it sounds like you are describing a specific meeting (or a typical situation you picture as ongoing).
With konuşur, it would sound more like a general rule:
- Kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa bile herkes sırayla konuşur.
  → “Even if a club meeting is crowded, everyone (in general) speaks in turn.”

Both are grammatically correct; the original just has a slightly more “right now / concrete situation” feel.

Why does the verb konuşuyor stay singular after herkes? Should it be konuşuyorlar?

In Turkish, herkes (“everyone”) is grammatically singular, even though it refers to many people.

So you use 3rd person singular verb forms:

Herkes geldi. – Everyone came.
Herkes mutlu. – Everyone is happy.
Herkes sırayla konuşuyor. – Everyone is speaking in turn.

Herkes … konuşuyorlar is generally considered incorrect in standard Turkish (though you might sometimes hear it in casual speech).

What exactly does sırayla mean, and how is it formed?

sırayla comes from:

sıra – “order, turn, row, line”
-yla / -ile – “with / by / using”

Over time sırayla has become an adverb meaning:

“in turn”
“one by one”
“in order / according to a sequence”

In your sentence:

herkes sırayla konuşuyor

means:

“everyone speaks in turn”
“everyone speaks one after another, taking turns”

Other examples:

Sırayla içeri girin. – Go inside one by one / in order.
Sırayla cevap verelim. – Let’s answer in turn.

Is the word order fixed, or can we move parts of the sentence around?

Turkish word order is flexible, but there is a default pattern: the verb tends to come at the end. In your sentence:

Kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa bile herkes sırayla konuşuyor.

Some natural variations (all acceptable, with small emphasis changes):

Kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa bile, herkes sırayla konuşuyor.
Herkes, kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa bile, sırayla konuşuyor.
Herkes sırayla konuşuyor, kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa bile. (more like an afterthought: “everyone speaks in turn, even if the club meeting is crowded.”)

What you cannot usually do is move the finite verb konuşuyor away from the end in a neutral statement:

❌ Kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa bile konuşuyor herkes. (sounds marked/odd in standard modern Turkish)

So yes, you can move phrases like herkes and kulüp toplantısı kalabalık olsa bile around, but the verb at the end is the main thing to keep.

Could we say Kulüp toplantısı çok kalabalık olsa bile? What would çok add?

Yes:

Kulüp toplantısı çok kalabalık olsa bile herkes sırayla konuşuyor.

Here:

çok = “very”

So çok kalabalık = “very crowded”.

Adding çok just makes the crowding stronger:

Original: “Even if the club meeting is crowded, everyone speaks in turn.”
With çok: “Even if the club meeting is very crowded, everyone speaks in turn.”

Grammatically it’s the same structure; only the intensity of kalabalık changes.