Ağabeyim gelene kadar ben evde kalacağım.

Ağabey means older brother. The ending -im means my, so ağabeyim means my older brother.

Turkish often shows possession with a suffix instead of a separate word.

• ağabey = older brother
• ağabey-im = my older brother

You may also hear the more casual form abi in everyday speech.

In modern Turkish, ğ is usually not pronounced like a strong English g. It often lengthens the vowel before it or creates a very slight glide.

So ağabeyim is not pronounced like agabeyim with a hard g. It sounds more like aa-bey-im.

This letter is often one of the trickiest parts of Turkish pronunciation for English speakers.

The sentence has two parts:

• Ağabeyim gelene kadar = the time clause
• ben evde kalacağım = the main clause

The subjects are different:

• ağabeyim is the one who comes
• ben is the one who will stay

So the sentence is structured like:

• Until my older brother comes,
• I will stay at home.

This is a very common pattern in Turkish.

Gelene kadar is a common Turkish pattern meaning until he/she comes or more generally until someone comes.

It can be broken down like this:

• gel- = come
• -en = a participle suffix
• -e = dative ending
• kadar = up to / until

So the whole phrase means something like up to the point of coming.

Also, kadar comes after the phrase because Turkish uses postpositions here, not prepositions. Compare:

• yarına kadar = until tomorrow
• eve kadar = up to the house
• gelene kadar = until he comes

Usually, no, not if you want the same meaning.

• gelince means when he comes or once he comes
• gelene kadar means until he comes

Those are different ideas.

Compare:

• Ağabeyim gelince evden çıkacağım.
  = When my older brother comes, I will leave the house.

• Ağabeyim gelene kadar evde kalacağım.
  = I will stay at home until my older brother comes.

If you want until, gelene kadar is the right choice.

Because ben is optional here.

The verb kalacağım already shows first person singular, so Turkish does not need the pronoun for basic grammar. The sentence could simply be:

• Ağabeyim gelene kadar evde kalacağım.

That would still mean the same thing.

When ben is included, it often adds:

• emphasis
• clarity
• contrast

For example, it can feel like As for me, I will stay at home until my older brother comes.

Because evde means at home / in the house, while eve means to the house / homeward.

Here the idea is location, not movement.

• ev-de = in/at the house
• ev-e = to the house

So:

• evde kalacağım = I will stay at home
• eve gideceğim = I will go home

This is a very important case difference in Turkish.

Kalacağım comes from:

• kal- = stay
• -acak / -ecek = future tense
• -ım / -im / -um / -üm = first person singular

So the basic idea is:

• kal-acak-ım = I will stay

In actual spelling and pronunciation, this becomes kalacağım. The k in -acak softens to ğ before the vowel of the personal ending.

So:

• kalacağım = I will stay

Not completely. Turkish word order is flexible, but this version is very natural.

Ağabeyim gelene kadar ben evde kalacağım is a normal way to say it, especially because the time clause comes first.

You could also say:

• Ben ağabeyim gelene kadar evde kalacağım.

That still works. The meaning stays basically the same, but the emphasis shifts a little.

In Turkish, the main verb often comes at the end, so kalacağım naturally appears last.