Misafirler gelince annem kısırı küçük tabaklara paylaştırdı.

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

Breakdown of Misafirler gelince annem kısırı küçük tabaklara paylaştırdı.

• küçük: small
• benim: my
• gelmek: to come
• tabak: the plate

Questions & Answers about Misafirler gelince annem kısırı küçük tabaklara paylaştırdı.

What does gelince mean here, and how is it formed?

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.

Why is it misafirler gelince and not something like misafirler geldiğinde?

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.