Geç kalınca sana hemen haber veriyorum.

immediately

Breakdown of Geç kalınca sana hemen haber veriyorum.

• geç kalmak: to be late
• -ınca: when
• sana: you

Questions & Answers about Geç kalınca sana hemen haber veriyorum.

What does geç kalmak literally mean, and how is it used?

Geç kalmak literally is something like “to remain late”, but idiomatically it simply means “to be late” (for something).

Examples:

• Derste her zaman geç kalıyorum. – I’m always late to class.
• Toplantıya geç kaldım. – I was late for the meeting.

So in Geç kalınca sana hemen haber veriyorum, geç kalınca = “when I am late / when I happen to be late.”

What does the ending -ınca in kalınca mean?

The suffix -ınca / -ince / -unca / -ünce usually means “when / as / upon (doing)” and turns a verb into a kind of time clause.

• geç kal-ınca → when (I) am late / whenever (I) am late
• gel-ince → when (he/she/they) come / upon coming
• bitir-ince → when (I) finish / once I finish

In this sentence, geç kalınca means “when I am late / whenever I’m late.”
The subject of this -ınca clause is understood to be the same as the subject of the main verb (veriyorum = I), so we interpret it as “when I am late”, not “when you/he is late.”

Why is it kalınca and not something like kaldığımda or geç kaldığım zaman?