Sıcak köfte kokusunu alınca yemeden edemiyorum.

Yes, almak very often means to take or to buy, but in Turkish it is also used in some fixed expressions.

Here, koku almak means:

• to smell
• to catch a smell
• to notice a scent

So Sıcak köfte kokusunu alınca is literally something like:

• when I get/catch the smell of hot meatballs

This is different from koklamak, which means to sniff something deliberately.

So:

• koku almak = to notice or catch a smell
• koklamak = to sniff

In this sentence, the idea is not that the speaker actively sniffs the meatballs, but that the smell reaches them.

Alınca comes from:

• al- = take / get / receive
• -ınca / -ince = when, once, upon

So alınca means:

• when (I) get
• when (I) catch
• once (I) smell

In this sentence, it is understood as:

• when I smell it
• when I catch the smell

This suffix creates a time clause. Some examples:

• Seni görünce mutlu oldum. = I became happy when I saw you.
• Eve gelince ara. = Call when you get home.

So Sıcak köfte kokusunu alınca... means When I smell the scent of hot meatballs...

It is a stacked form, and each part has a job.

kokusunu = koku + su + nu

Breakdown:

• koku = smell
• -su = third-person possessive suffix, so kokusu = its smell / the smell of it
• -nu = accusative case, marking it as a specific direct object

So:

• kokusu = its smell / the smell
• kokusunu = its smell as a specific object

In the sentence, the full phrase is:

• sıcak köfte kokusunu

This means:

• the smell of hot meatballs as the object of almak

This is a very common Turkish structure called a noun compound.

In Turkish, when one noun describes another noun, the second noun often takes the third-person possessive suffix. So:

• köfte kokusu = meatball smell / the smell of meatballs
• literally: meatball its-smell

This does not always mean real possession in the everyday English sense. It is just how Turkish commonly builds noun-noun combinations.

Other examples:

• elma suyu = apple juice
• araba kapısı = car door
• okul bahçesi = school garden

So sıcak köfte kokusu means the smell of hot meatballs, and then kokusunu is that same phrase in the accusative.

Because kokusunu is the direct object of almak, and it is a specific object.

Compare:

• koku alıyorum = I smell a smell / I can smell something
• köfte kokusunu alıyorum = I smell the smell of the meatballs

In Turkish, the accusative often appears when the object is specific or definite.

So here:

• kokusu = its smell / the smell
• kokusunu = the smell as a definite, specific object

Since the speaker means a particular smell — the smell of hot meatballs — the accusative is natural.

Literally, it is something like:

• I cannot do without eating
• I cannot help eating
• I just can’t stop myself from eating

This is a very common Turkish pattern:

• -meden / -madan edememek

It means:

• to be unable to refrain from doing something
• to not be able to help doing something

So:

• yemeden edemiyorum = I can’t help eating
• gülmeden edemedim = I couldn’t help laughing
• bakmadan edemiyor = he/she can’t help looking

This is an idiomatic structure, and it is much more natural to learn it as a chunk than to translate each piece one by one.

Because Turkish uses this fixed pattern:

• verb + -meden/-madan + edememek

That pattern is negative in form, but the overall meaning is:

• to be unable not to do X
• in natural English: to be unable to help doing X

So:

• yemeden = without eating / not eating
• edemiyorum = I can’t do/manage

Together, the sense becomes:

• I can’t manage not to eat
• more naturally: I can’t help eating

This kind of double-negative-looking structure is normal in Turkish idioms and grammar patterns. It does not mean the positive and negative cancel each other out in a simple mathematical way.

Because the structure is not built directly with yemek in the second part. It uses the auxiliary verb etmek in the fixed expression:

• -meden edememek

So the pattern is:

• ye-meden edemiyorum
• literally: I can’t manage without eating

You should think of edememek here as part of the idiom, not as something chosen freely each time.

For that reason:

• yiyemiyorum = I cannot eat
• yemeden edemiyorum = I cannot help eating

These mean very different things.

The subject is I, and it is understood from the verb ending.

In Turkish, subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb already tells you the person.

Here:

• edemiyorum = I cannot
• the ending -um shows first person singular (I)

So ben is unnecessary unless the speaker wants emphasis.

Compare:

• Yemeden edemiyorum. = I can’t help eating.
• Ben yemeden edemiyorum. = I can’t help eating.
  This sounds more emphatic, like contrasting yourself with someone else.

Yes, Turkish word order is flexible, but this order is very natural.

The sentence is:

• Sıcak köfte kokusunu alınca yemeden edemiyorum.

A very literal structure is:

• When I smell the scent of hot meatballs, I can’t help eating.

Turkish often places the time or condition clause first, and the main verb comes at the end of the sentence or clause. That is exactly what happens here.

You could rearrange parts for emphasis, but the given version is smooth and normal.

The most neutral flow is:

1. Sıcak köfte kokusunu alınca = when I smell hot meatballs
2. yemeden edemiyorum = I can’t help eating

So the sentence builds naturally toward the main idea at the end.

It is understood as:

• the smell of hot meatballs

The adjective sıcak most naturally modifies köfte here, not koku.

So:

• sıcak köfte = hot meatballs
• sıcak köfte kokusu = the smell of hot meatballs

If you wanted to say a warm smell, you would normally need a context where that idea makes sense, and the phrasing would usually be clearer. In this sentence, the intended reading is definitely about the meatballs being hot.

Yes, in English you would usually make it a bit more natural depending on context. Good translations include:

• When I smell hot meatballs, I can’t help eating.
• When I catch the smell of hot meatballs, I just have to eat.
• When I smell hot meatballs, I can’t resist eating them.

The Turkish sentence does not explicitly repeat them, but English often wants it. Turkish is comfortable leaving that understood from context.

So yemeden edemiyorum is grammatically without eating I can’t help it, but natural English often becomes:

• I can’t resist eating them
• I just have to eat
• I can’t help myself