Annem çocuğun alnına merhem sürdü.

Annem means my mother. The ending -m is the possessive suffix for my.

So:

• anne = mother
• annem = my mother

Turkish often does not use the separate pronoun benim when the possessive suffix already shows the meaning clearly. So:

• annem = my mother
• benim annem = also my mother, but with extra emphasis or contrast

In ordinary sentences, annem by itself is very natural.

This happens for two reasons:

First, Turkish adds the genitive ending here, because the phrase means the child’s forehead.

• çocuk = child
• çocuğun = the child’s / of the child

Second, when a vowel-initial suffix is added to some words ending in k, the k often softens to ğ:

• çocuk
  • -un → çocuğun

The ending appears as -un because of vowel harmony. So çocuğun is the correct form for the child’s.

This is a very common Turkish structure called a genitive-possessive construction.

It works like this:

• çocuğ-un = of the child / the child’s
• aln-ı-na = to his/her forehead

Together:

• çocuğun alnına = to the child’s forehead

In Turkish, when one noun possesses another, the first noun usually takes the genitive ending, and the second noun takes a possessive ending.

So this is literally something like:

• child-GEN forehead-3rd person possessive-DATIVE

That is why both words are marked.

The dictionary form is alın = forehead.

In this sentence, the word needs two things:

1. a possessive ending, because it means the child’s forehead
2. a dative ending, because the ointment is applied to the forehead

Step by step:

• alın = forehead
• alın + ı → expected possessive form, but Turkish commonly drops a vowel here
• so it becomes alnı = his/her forehead
• then add dative: alnı + na = alnına

The -n- is a linking consonant used before case endings after a possessive form.

So alnına means to his/her forehead.

It is the dative ending, which often means to, toward, or sometimes onto depending on context.

Here it marks the place where the ointment is applied:

• alnına sürmek = to apply onto the forehead / to the forehead

So in this sentence, the dative is not really about movement in the English sense of go to, but about directing the action onto a surface or body part.

Because merhem here is an indefinite / non-specific direct object.

In Turkish:

• a bare object like merhem often means ointment / some ointment
• an accusative-marked object like merhemi usually means the ointment, a specific one already known in context

So:

• merhem sürdü = applied ointment / some ointment
• merhemi sürdü = applied the ointment

This is a very important Turkish pattern: specific direct objects usually take the accusative ending, but non-specific ones often do not.

The verb sürmek has several meanings in Turkish, depending on context. Here it means to apply, to spread, or to rub on.

So:

• merhem sürmek = to apply ointment

This is a very common collocation in Turkish. The literal core idea of sürmek is something like to spread/rub across a surface, which fits ointment very well.

Sürdü is the simple past tense of sürmek in the 3rd person singular.

Breakdown:

• verb stem: sür-
• past tense suffix: -dI
• because of vowel harmony, -dI becomes -dü
• 3rd person singular usually has no extra personal ending here

So:

• sür-dü = he/she/it applied

Since the subject is annem = my mother, English translates it as my mother applied.

For comparison:

• sürdüm = I applied
• sürdün = you applied
• sürdü = he/she applied

Because Turkish normally prefers Subject–Object–Verb order, with the verb at or near the end.

This sentence follows a very natural Turkish order:

• Annem = subject
• çocuğun alnına = where/to what part
• merhem = object
• sürdü = verb

So the sentence ends with the action, which is very typical in Turkish.

That said, Turkish word order is somewhat flexible. Parts of the sentence can move for emphasis, but the verb often still stays at the end.

Turkish does not have articles exactly like English the and a.

Instead, Turkish often shows these ideas through:

• context
• word order
• case marking
• whether the noun is bare or marked
• sometimes bir for a / one

So in this sentence:

• çocuğun alnına is understood as to the child’s forehead
• merhem can mean ointment or some ointment, depending on context

If you wanted to make a more explicit, you might use bir in some contexts, but Turkish often leaves it out when it is not necessary.