Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olacağım.

I will have prepared the table before you arrive.

Breakdown of Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olacağım.

• olmak: to be
• gelmek: to come
• sen: you
• masa: the table
• hazırlamak: to prepare
• önce: before
• -yı: accusative
• -meden: before

Questions & Answers about Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olacağım.

What is a word-by-word breakdown and gloss of Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olacağım?

Here’s the sentence broken down:

• Sen – you (singular, informal, subject pronoun)
• gel- – verb stem to come
• -me- – negative suffix here used as part of -meden “before doing X”
• -den – ablative suffix; together gelmeden = before (you) come / without coming
• önce – before
• masa – table
• -yı – accusative suffix (direct object marker); masayı = the table
• hazırla- – verb stem to prepare
• -mış – perfect aspect suffix (similar to English have prepared here)
• ol- – to be / to become (auxiliary verb here)
• -acak – future tense suffix
• -ım – 1st person singular suffix; olacağım = I will be

Very literally:
Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olacağım.
= You come-before the table have-prepared will-be-I.
Natural English: I will have prepared the table before you come.

What is the difference between hazırlayacağım and hazırlamış olacağım in this sentence?

Both are future, but they express different aspects:

• Masayı hazırlayacağım
  = I will prepare the table.
  Neutral future; the focus is simply that the action will happen in the future.

• Masayı hazırlamış olacağım
  = I will have prepared the table.
  This is a future perfect idea: by a certain future point (your arrival), the action will already be completed.

In Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olacağım, the speaker emphasizes that at the moment you arrive, the preparation will already be finished. Using hazırlayacağım would be more vague about whether it’s done before, during, or after that point.

Why do we need olacağım? Why not just hazırlamış?

Hazırlamış alone is not future; it’s a past/perfect form:

• Masayı hazırlamış(ım). – I have prepared the table / Apparently I prepared the table.

To talk about a future perfect (will have done), Turkish combines:

• -mış (perfect aspect)
• plus a future form of olmak (to be): olacağım

So: hazırlamış olacağım = I will be (in the state of) having prepared (it) → I will have prepared (it).

Without olacağım, there is no future meaning. The verb would refer to a (completed) past action, not a completed future action.

What exactly does gelmeden önce mean, and how does -meden work?

Gelmeden önce literally means “before (you) come”.

• gel- – to come
• -me – this is the same form as the negative suffix, but here it forms the converb -meden / -madan, which means “without doing / before doing”
• -den – ablative suffix, part of the fixed pattern -meden / -madan
• önce – before

So:

• gelmeden – before coming / without coming
• gelmeden önce – before (you) come

In practice, X-meden önce is the normal way to say “before X does Y”:

• Yemek yemeden önce ellerini yıka. – Wash your hands before eating.
• Gitmeden önce bana haber ver. – Let me know before you go.

Why is the subject “sen” in the first clause, but the subject “ben” is not stated in the second clause?

Turkish usually omits subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows the person:

• hazırlamış olacağım – the -ım at the end already tells us “I”.
• So ben is optional: Ben masayı hazırlamış olacağım is correct but not required.

In sen gelmeden, the verb gelmeden has no personal ending, so there is nothing in the verb form itself that tells us who is coming. That’s why the pronoun sen is used to clarify the subject:

• Sen gelmeden önce… – Before you come…

You could drop sen if the context is clear:

• Gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olacağım. – Before you come, I will have prepared the table.

Then “you” is understood from context.

What does the -yı in masayı do? Why not just masa?

-yı is the accusative case marker, used for definite direct objects.

• masa – table (no case: can mean “a table” or “the table” depending on context)
• masayı – the table specifically, as a definite object

In Turkish:

• Masayı hazırladım. – I prepared the table. (a specific, known table)
• Masa hazırladım. – I prepared a table / tables. (indefinite; which table is not specified)

In masayı hazırlamış olacağım, the speaker is clearly talking about a particular table (for dinner, for you, etc.), so the accusative case is used.

Can the word order change? For example, can I say Masayı sen gelmeden önce hazırlamış olacağım?

Yes. Turkish word order is flexible. The basic template is SOV (Subject–Object–Verb), but phrases can move for emphasis.

All of these are grammatically possible and natural in different contexts:

1. Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olacağım.
   (Neutral: time clause first, then main clause.)

2. Masayı sen gelmeden önce hazırlamış olacağım.
   (Slight emphasis on masayı – it is specifically the table that will be ready before you come.)

3. Masayı hazırlamış olacağım sen gelmeden önce.
   (More marked; puts strong emphasis on “before you come” at the end.)

The verb complex (hazırlamış olacağım) almost always stays at the end of the main clause. Moving it earlier would be unnatural or incorrect.

Is Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olacağım polite or informal? How would I say it formally?

The informality / formality comes mainly from the pronoun:

• Sen – informal “you” (used with friends, family, kids)
• Siz – formal or plural “you”

A more formal version would be:

• Siz gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olacağım.
  – I will have prepared the table before you (formal) come.

The rest of the sentence is neutral in tone; it doesn’t change for politeness.

How would I say “I will not have prepared the table before you come”?

You negate the auxiliary part, not hazırlamış:

• Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olmayacağım.

Breakdown:

• hazırlamış – having prepared
• olma- – negative of ol- (to be)
• -yacak – future
• -ım – 1sg

= I will not be in the state of having prepared the table before you come.
→ I will not have prepared the table before you come.

How would I turn this into a question: “Will I have prepared the table before you come?”

You add the question particle mi (with vowel harmony and separated spelling) to the auxiliary:

• Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamış olacak mıyım?

Structure:

• hazırlamış olacak mıyım? – will I have prepared?

Mi comes right after olacak, then the personal ending stays on the verb: olacak mıyım?

Is -mış here “hearsay” (“apparently”) or just a perfect aspect marker?

The suffix -mış has several functions in Turkish:

1. Evidential past / hearsay:

   • Gelmiş. – Apparently he came / I hear he came.

2. Perfect aspect / result state (often in compound tenses):

   • Hazırlamış olacağım. – I will have prepared.

In hazırlamış olacağım, it’s not hearsay. It’s used to mark a completed action whose result will hold at a future point. So here -mış is mainly an aspect marker (completed/“already done”) in the future perfect construction.

Could I just say Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlayacağım instead? How different does it sound?

Yes, you can say:

• Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlayacağım.

This is perfectly correct and often used. The difference is:

• hazırlayacağım – simple future: I will prepare the table (before you come).
• hazırlamış olacağım – future perfect: I will have prepared the table (by the time you come).

In many everyday contexts, speakers don’t feel a big difference in meaning; both can imply “it’ll be ready before you arrive”. Hazırlamış olacağım sounds a bit more explicit and sometimes a bit more formal or careful about the timing and completion.

Is gelmeden önce the only way to say “before you come”? Are there alternatives?

The most common and neutral way is indeed:

• Sen gelmeden önce – before you come

Some alternatives:

• Sen gelmeden evvel – before you come (more formal/literary; evvel = “before”)
• Sen gelmeden (alone) – in context, can sometimes mean “before you come” without adding önce, though gelmeden önce is clearer.

But you would not normally say something like “sen gelince önce”; the “before” relation is typically expressed with -meden önce / -madan önce.

Why is there no tense ending on gelmeden? How do we know it’s “before you come” and not “before you came”?

Gelmeden is a non-finite verb form (a converb), not a normal finite verb with tense/person endings.

• It doesn’t carry its own tense; its time reference is understood from the main clause.
• Here, the main clause is future: hazırlamış olacağım – I will have prepared.
  So gelmeden is understood as referring to a future arrival: before you come.

If the main clause were in the past, the same gelmeden önce would be understood as “before you came”:

• Sen gelmeden önce masayı hazırlamıştım.
  – I had prepared the table before you came.

The tense is thus carried by the main verb, and gelmeden just expresses the “before doing X” relationship.