Ben erken çıkacaktım, hâlbuki toplantı uzadı.

Yes. Turkish often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person.

Here, çıkacaktım already means I was going to leave, because -tım marks 1st person singular.

So ben is not grammatically necessary. It is included for one of these reasons:

• emphasis
• contrast
• clarity

In this sentence, ben can feel a bit contrastive: I was going to leave early, but the meeting ran long.

Without it, the sentence would still be natural:

Erken çıkacaktım, hâlbuki toplantı uzadı.

Çıkacaktım can be broken down like this:

• çık- = leave / go out
• -acak = future
• -tı = past
• -m = I

So:

çık-acak-tı-m

This combination often means:

• I was going to leave
• I was supposed to leave
• I would leave (in some contexts)

In this sentence, the most natural sense is I was going to leave early or I was supposed to leave early.

It is a very common Turkish way to talk about a past plan, intention, or expectation.

Because the sentence is talking about a future action viewed from the past.

From a past point of view, leaving early was the plan. So Turkish uses:

• future: the action had not happened yet at that past moment
• past: the whole situation is being described from a past time

That is why -acak + -tı is so useful. It creates the idea of:

• was going to
• was supposed to
• would have been about to

So the speaker is not talking about a present or future plan now. They are talking about a plan they had earlier.

Not by itself.

By itself, Ben erken çıkacaktım mainly tells us there was a plan or intention to leave early.

But in this full sentence, the second clause changes the interpretation:

..., hâlbuki toplantı uzadı.

This creates a contrast and strongly suggests that the plan did not happen.

So the overall idea is:

• the speaker intended or expected to leave early
• but the meeting went on longer
• therefore, they probably couldn’t leave early

The first clause alone does not absolutely guarantee that the action failed, but in this sentence the implication is very strong.

Hâlbuki is a conjunction used to show contrast or unexpected opposition between two clauses.

Depending on context, it can feel like:

• however
• but
• whereas
• yet
• and yet

In this sentence, it signals that the second clause goes against what the first clause made us expect.

So the feeling is something like:

• I was going to leave early, but contrary to that expectation, the meeting ran long.

It is stronger and more pointed than a simple neutral but.

Both can connect contrasting ideas, but they are not exactly the same.

Ama

• very common
• neutral, everyday but

Hâlbuki

• more literary, formal, or emphatic
• often means however / whereas / and yet
• highlights a contradiction between expectation and reality

So:

• Ben erken çıkacaktım ama toplantı uzadı.
  = perfectly natural, everyday style

• Ben erken çıkacaktım, hâlbuki toplantı uzadı.
  = stronger sense of contradiction; slightly more polished or written in tone

Both are correct, but hâlbuki adds more rhetorical contrast.

Because toplantı is the subject of the verb uzadı.

In Turkish, the basic subject usually has no case ending. That bare form is often called the nominative.

So:

• toplantı uzadı = the meeting ran long / the meeting got extended

If you said toplantıyı, that would be an object form, and it would not fit with uzadı here.

This is a very common Turkish verb pair:

• uzamak = to become long / to last longer / to be extended
• uzatmak = to lengthen something / to extend something

So:

• Toplantı uzadı = The meeting ran long / was extended
• Biri toplantıyı uzattı = Someone extended the meeting

In your sentence, the meeting itself is presented as the thing that continued longer than expected, so uzadı is the natural choice.

Erken çıkmak literally means to leave early or to go out early, depending on context.

In everyday Turkish, it is very commonly used for leaving:

• work
• school
• a meeting
• an office
• an event

So in this sentence, it most naturally means to leave early from wherever the speaker was, probably because of the meeting context.

Because erken is an adverb, and Turkish commonly places adverbs before the verb they modify.

So:

• erken çıkmak = to leave early

This is the most normal order.

Turkish word order is flexible, but this position is the standard and most natural one here.

Yes, Turkish word order is flexible, but changing it can change the focus or emphasis.

For example:

• Ben erken çıkacaktım, hâlbuki toplantı uzadı.
  Neutral, clear contrast.

• Toplantı uzadı, hâlbuki ben erken çıkacaktım.
  Starts by highlighting the meeting first.

• Erken çıkacaktım ben, hâlbuki toplantı uzadı.
  More marked; gives stronger emphasis to ben or the first clause.

Even though several orders are possible, the original sentence sounds natural and straightforward.

Because hâlbuki connects two separate clauses, and Turkish often uses a comma to mark that break, especially when there is a clear contrast.

Here the comma helps show:

• first idea: Ben erken çıkacaktım
• contrasting second idea: hâlbuki toplantı uzadı

It makes the sentence easier to read and reflects the pause a speaker would naturally make.

You may see both hâlbuki and halbuki.

For a learner, the important thing is that they are the same word in meaning and function. In modern everyday writing, halbuki is very common, while hâlbuki may look a bit more traditional or stylistic.

So if you encounter either spelling, understand it as the same conjunction.

Yes, depending on context.

Çıkacaktım can suggest:

• a personal intention: I was going to leave early
• an expectation or plan: I was supposed to leave early

In this sentence, because the meeting running long prevented the expected action, was supposed to can sound very natural.

So both ideas are possible, and the exact English choice depends on the nuance the translator wants.