Babaanne gelmeden kahvaltıya başlamıyoruz.

Babaanne means paternal grandmother — your father’s mother.

Turkish distinguishes:

• babaanne = father’s mother
• anneanne = mother’s mother

In English, both are usually just grandmother or grandma, so this is a detail English speakers often notice.

Babaannem means my grandmother.

But Turkish often uses family words like anne, baba, babaanne, teyze, and so on almost like names or titles, especially when the person is obvious from context. So babaanne here can sound like Grandma in English.

Compare:

• Babaannem gelmeden... = Before my grandmother comes...
• Babaanne gelmeden... = Before Grandma comes...

Both can be natural, depending on context.

Gelmeden comes from the verb stem gel- meaning come plus -meden.

This form usually means:

• without coming
• or, in many sentences like this one, before coming / until ... comes

So here Babaanne gelmeden kahvaltıya başlamıyoruz means that breakfast does not start before Grandma comes.

It is built like this:

• gel- = come
• -me- = negative marker
• -den = an ending used in this adverbial structure

Together, -meden / -madan creates a verbal adverb meaning something like without doing or before doing.

Examples:

• yemeden = without eating / before eating
• gitmeden = without going / before going
• gelmeden = without coming / before coming

No. It may look that way, but it is not a logical double negative.

• gelmeden is a fixed adverbial form meaning before coming or without coming
• başlamıyoruz is the actual negative main verb: we are not starting / we don’t start

So the sentence does not mean something like we don’t not start.
It means: We don’t start breakfast before Grandma arrives.

Because the verb başlamak takes the dative case.

In Turkish, you start to / begin on something:

• bir şeye başlamak = to start something

So:

• kahvaltı = breakfast
• kahvaltıya = to breakfast

The ending is -a / -e, but because kahvaltı ends in a vowel, Turkish inserts a buffer -y-:

• kahvaltı + a → kahvaltıya

So:

• kahvaltıya başlamak = to start breakfast

Not:

• kahvaltıyı başlamak ❌

It breaks down like this:

• başla- = start, begin
• -mı- = negative marker
• -yor = present continuous
• -uz = we

So:

başla-mı-yor-uz
= we are not starting / we don’t start

Because of sound harmony and normal spelling, it appears as başlamıyoruz.

This is very common in Turkish.

The -yor form does not only mean something happening right this second. It can also describe:

• current habits
• regular practices
• plans
• situations that are true around now

So başlamıyoruz can naturally mean:

• we are not starting
• we don’t start
• we’re not starting

In this sentence, English usually prefers we don’t start breakfast before Grandma comes.

Because Turkish verbs already show the subject in their endings.

In başlamıyoruz, the ending -uz tells you the subject is we.

So biz is optional:

• Babaanne gelmeden kahvaltıya başlamıyoruz. = normal
• Biz babaanne gelmeden kahvaltıya başlamıyoruz. = adds emphasis to we

Turkish often leaves subject pronouns out unless they are needed for contrast or emphasis.

Yes, absolutely.

Gelmeden önce is a very common way to say before ... comes / before coming.

So these are both natural:

• Babaanne gelmeden kahvaltıya başlamıyoruz.
• Babaanne gelmeden önce kahvaltıya başlamıyoruz.

The version with önce is a little more explicit. The shorter version is also perfectly normal because -meden already carries the idea of before / without.

Yes, Turkish word order is flexible.

This sentence starts with Babaanne gelmeden to set the condition or time frame first:

• Before Grandma comes...

Then:

• kahvaltıya = breakfast
• başlamıyoruz = we don’t start

This order is very natural. But Turkish can move parts around for emphasis. For example:

• Kahvaltıya babaanne gelmeden başlamıyoruz.

That still means basically the same thing, but the emphasis shifts slightly.

The most important thing is that the verb usually comes at or near the end in a neutral sentence.