Misafirler gelince annem kısırı küçük tabaklara paylaştırdı.

Gelince comes from the verb gelmek (to come) plus the suffix -ince/-ınca, which often means when, once, or upon doing something.

So:

• gel- = come
• -ince = when / once

Together, gelince means when (they) came or when the guests arrived in this sentence.

This structure is very common in Turkish for time clauses:

• Eve gelince = when he/she came home
• Seni görünce = when I saw you
• Yemek bitince = when the meal finished

In this sentence, Misafirler gelince means when the guests came/arrived.

Both are possible, but they are slightly different styles.

• Misafirler gelince = when the guests came / once the guests arrived
• Misafirler geldiğinde = when the guests came / at the time the guests came

Both are natural.
Gelince is often a bit more direct and compact.
Geldiğinde can sound a little more formal or more explicitly tied to a specific moment.

For many learners, it helps to think of -ince as a very common everyday way to say when.

Because annem is:

• anne = mother
• -m = my

So:

• anne = mother
• annem = my mother
• annen = your mother
• annesi = his/her mother

In the sentence, annem is the subject: my mother did the action.

The -ı here is the accusative case, which marks a specific direct object.

• kısır = kısır
• kısırı = the kısır / that specific kısır

In Turkish, a direct object often takes the accusative when it is definite or specific.

Compare:

• Kitap okudum. = I read a book / books
• Kitabı okudum. = I read the book

So in your sentence, kısırı shows that the speaker means a specific prepared dish of kısır, not just kısır in general.

Kısır is the name of a Turkish dish, usually made with fine bulgur, tomato or pepper paste, herbs, lemon juice, and similar ingredients.

A native English speaker might expect a translated food name, but in Turkish it is very normal just to use the dish name itself. So kısırı here means the kısır or the prepared kısır dish.

Because:

• küçük = small
• tabak = plate
• tabaklar = plates
• tabaklara = to the plates / onto the plates

The ending -a/-e is the dative case, often used for direction or destination.
Here it shows where the food was distributed:

• küçük tabaklara = onto small plates / into small plates

So the idea is that the mother portioned the kısır into or onto small plates.

In Turkish, adjectives do not change for plural.

So:

• küçük tabak = small plate
• küçük tabaklar = small plates

The adjective küçük stays the same. Only the noun gets the plural ending:

• tabak = plate
• tabaklar = plates

This is different from some languages where adjectives agree with nouns.

Paylaştırdı means something like divided up, distributed, or portioned out.

It comes from paylaştırmak, a verb meaning to distribute/share out among several recipients.

Here it suggests that the mother took the kısır and separated it into portions for the small plates.

So a natural English translation could be:

• she distributed the kısır onto small plates
• she portioned the kısır into small plates
• she divided the kısır among small plates

Because paylaştırmak gives a more specific meaning.

• koymak = to put
• paylaştırmak = to distribute / divide up / portion out

If you said kısırı küçük tabaklara koydu, it would simply mean she put the kısır onto small plates.

But paylaştırdı emphasizes that the food was divided into portions, probably one portion per plate. That matches the situation better.

The ending -dı/-di/-du/-dü is the simple past tense.

So:

• paylaştırır = he/she distributes
• paylaştırdı = he/she distributed

In this sentence, it tells us the action happened in the past:

• annem ... paylaştırdı = my mother distributed / portioned out

The form is -dı here because of vowel harmony and consonant voicing patterns.

The sentence is:

Misafirler gelince annem kısırı küçük tabaklara paylaştırdı.

A very common Turkish pattern is:

time expression + subject + object + other complements + verb

So here:

• Misafirler gelince = when the guests arrived
• annem = my mother
• kısırı = the kısır
• küçük tabaklara = onto small plates
• paylaştırdı = distributed

Turkish usually puts the verb at the end.
Also, time expressions often come near the beginning.

English speakers often want to say it in a more English-like order, but this Turkish order is very natural.

Yes, Turkish word order is flexible, although some orders sound more natural than others.

For example, you could also say:

• Annem misafirler gelince kısırı küçük tabaklara paylaştırdı.

This is still understandable and natural.

But the original version gives a nice flow by setting the time first:

• Misafirler gelince ... = When the guests arrived ...

That is especially common in narration.

Yes. Turkish often leaves the subject understood from context.

In Misafirler gelince, the noun misafirler already tells you who is doing the action of coming:

• misafirler = the guests
• gelince = when [they] came

So there is no need to add a separate pronoun like onlar (they).

Turkish commonly avoids unnecessary pronouns when the meaning is already clear.

Turkish does not have articles like English the or a/an.

Instead, definiteness is often shown in other ways, especially through case marking.

For example:

• kısır = kısır / some kısır / kısır in general
• kısırı = the kısır / the specific kısır

So English uses articles, but Turkish often uses context and endings instead.

Yes. Depending on context, -ince can mean:

• when
• once
• as soon as

So Misafirler gelince could be understood as:

• when the guests arrived
• once the guests arrived
• as soon as the guests arrived

The exact nuance depends on the situation, but all are close.

A useful breakdown is:

• Misafirler = the guests
• gelince = when they came / when they arrived
• annem = my mother
• kısırı = the kısır
• küçük tabaklara = onto small plates
• paylaştırdı = distributed / portioned out

So the structure is:

When the guests arrived, my mother portioned the kısır onto small plates.

This kind of chunking is very helpful in Turkish, because suffixes carry a lot of meaning.