Çenem yorulmuş olmalı, çünkü sabah çok sert bir şey çiğnedim.

It comes from çene + the 1st-person singular possessive ending -m, so çenem means my jaw.

A useful pattern:

• çene = jaw
• çenem = my jaw

With nouns ending in a vowel, Turkish often adds just -m for my:

• araba → arabam
• anne → annem
• çene → çenem

Because the possessive suffix already shows my.

So:

• çenem already means my jaw
• benim çenem is possible, but it adds emphasis or contrast, like my jaw rather than someone else’s

In ordinary speech, Turkish often leaves out the separate pronoun when the ending already makes it clear.

In this sentence, it is best understood as part of the verb yorulmak, which means to get tired or to become tired.

So:

• yormak = to tire someone/something out
• yorulmak = to get tired

Here çenem yorulmuş means my jaw has gotten tired / seems to have gotten tired. It is not functioning like an English-style passive translation such as was tired by someone.

This is a very common Turkish structure for making a deduction.

It combines:

• yorulmuş = apparently / evidently got tired, with -mış giving an inferential nuance
• olmalı = must be

Together, yorulmuş olmalı means something like:

• must have gotten tired
• is probably tired
• must be tired now

So the speaker is not simply reporting a plain fact; they are concluding it.

Because the speaker has different kinds of knowledge about the two actions.

• çiğnedim uses the direct past -di, because the speaker personally knows they chewed something.
• yorulmuş olmalı is inferential, because the speaker is concluding that their jaw got tired as a result.

So the sentence naturally mixes:

• a directly known action: çiğnedim
• an inferred result: yorulmuş olmalı

This is a very Turkish kind of contrast.

Not in the advice sense.

The ending -malı / -meli can mean obligation:

• Gitmeliyim. = I should / must go.

But in a pattern like -mış olmalı, it usually expresses logical deduction:

• Hasta olmalı. = He/She must be ill.
• Yorulmuş olmalı. = It/He/She must have gotten tired.

So here olmalı is closer to must have than to should.

Because this is the normal Turkish order for an indefinite noun phrase.

Piece by piece:

• çok = very
• sert = hard
• bir şey = something / a thing

So çok sert bir şey means something very hard.

Turkish puts modifiers before the noun, and bir şey is a very common way to say something.

Because it is an indefinite, non-specific object.

In Turkish, direct objects are often:

• unmarked if they are indefinite/non-specific
• marked with the accusative if they are specific/definite

So:

• çok sert bir şey çiğnedim = I chewed something very hard

But compare:

• o şeyi çiğnedim = I chewed that thing

This is part of Turkish differential object marking, which often feels new to English speakers.

It can mean either in the morning or this morning, depending on context.

In this sentence, English will often use this morning, because the speaker is giving a specific reason for the current conclusion about their jaw.

If you want to make it fully explicit in Turkish, you could say:

• bu sabah

But sabah by itself is very natural here.

Because Turkish normally prefers verb-final order.

In the second clause:

• sabah = time expression
• çok sert bir şey = object
• çiğnedim = verb

So the verb comes at the end, which is the usual Turkish pattern.

The full sentence is also arranged very naturally as:

• conclusion first: Çenem yorulmuş olmalı
• reason second: çünkü sabah çok sert bir şey çiğnedim

A rough pronunciation is chee-neh-dim.

Helpful points:

• ç sounds like ch in church
• i sounds like ee in see
• ğ usually does not sound like a strong English g; it often lengthens or smooths the vowel before it

So çiğnedim is smoother than its spelling may suggest to an English speaker.