Hayırlı olsun, amcam yeni bir fotoğraf makinesi almış; çiftlikteki hayvanların hepsini çekmek istiyor.

Hayırlı olsun is a very common Turkish good-wish expression. It is said when someone gets something new or has a positive new development in life.

In this sentence, it means something like:

• Congratulations on it
• May it be good for you
• Hope it serves you well

It is not a word-for-word equivalent of English congratulations. It carries the idea of wishing that the new thing turns out well, usefully, and happily.

Grammatically:

• hayırlı = beneficial, auspicious, good in outcome
• olsun = let it be

So the literal sense is roughly May it be beneficial/good.

Amcam means my uncle.

The ending -m is the my suffix:

• amca = paternal uncle
• amcam = my paternal uncle

A very important detail for English speakers: Turkish distinguishes between different kinds of uncles.

• amca = father’s brother
• dayı = mother’s brother

So amcam is specifically my father’s brother.

Also, Turkish often uses these possessed family words where English might simply say my uncle or even just uncle. So amcam yeni bir fotoğraf makinesi almış is a very natural way to say my uncle has bought a new camera.

Almış is the -miş past form, often called the reported or evidential past.

It can suggest that the speaker:

• learned this information from someone else
• noticed the result afterward
• is not presenting it as directly witnessed fact

So amcam yeni bir fotoğraf makinesi almış can feel like:

• Apparently my uncle bought a new camera
• It turns out my uncle bought a new camera
• I hear my uncle bought a new camera

By contrast:

• aldı = simple definite past, more like he bought
• almış = reported/discovered past, more like he has apparently bought / I hear he bought

In this context, almış fits nicely with Hayırlı olsun, because the speaker sounds like they are reacting to news.

In Turkish, fotoğraf makinesi literally means photo machine or photograph machine, and that is the normal word for camera.

This is a very common Turkish pattern: a noun can be formed from two nouns.

Here:

• fotoğraf = photograph
• makine = machine
• fotoğraf makinesi = camera

So instead of one single word like English camera, Turkish commonly uses this compound expression.

This is because fotoğraf makinesi is a standard Turkish noun compound.

In this type of compound:

• the first noun stays plain
• the second noun usually takes a third-person possessive-type ending

So:

• fotoğraf
  • makine
• becomes fotoğraf makinesi

That -si does not mean his/her machine here. It is just part of the compound structure.

This happens in many common Turkish nouns, for example:

• çamaşır makinesi = washing machine
• kahve fincanı = coffee cup
• otobüs durağı = bus stop

So fotoğraf makinesi is best learned as a set phrase meaning camera.

Çiftlikteki means the one(s) at/on/in the farm or more naturally here on the farm.

It breaks down like this:

• çiftlik = farm
• çiftlikte = at/on the farm
• çiftlikteki = the one(s) that are at/on the farm

The ending -ki turns a location phrase into something adjective-like.

So:

• çiftlikteki hayvanlar = the animals on the farm

This is a very common pattern in Turkish:

• masadaki kitap = the book on the table
• okuldaki öğrenciler = the students at the school
• dolaptaki yemek = the food in the cupboard

This is a very common Turkish structure:

• X-in hepsi = all of X

So:

• hayvanlar = animals
• hayvanların = of the animals
• hepsi = all of them
• hepsini = all of them, as a direct object

So çiftlikteki hayvanların hepsini means all of the animals on the farm.

Why the endings?

1. hayvanların is in the genitive because it depends on hepsi

   • literally: the animals’ all

2. hepsini has the accusative ending -ni because it is the definite direct object of çekmek

   • he wants to photograph all of them

If you said only hepsi, that would usually be a subject, not the object here.

Compare:

• Hepsi geldi = All of them came
• Hepsini gördüm = I saw all of them

Yes. Çekmek has several meanings, and to take a photo is one of them.

Common meanings of çekmek include:

• to pull
• to draw
• to shoot
• to take a photo
• to film/record

In photo contexts, çekmek is the normal verb:

• fotoğraf çekmek = to take a photograph
• resim çekmek = to take a picture

In this sentence, fotoğraf is not repeated because the camera already makes the meaning clear:

• hepsini çekmek istiyor = he wants to photograph all of them

So yes, this is perfectly natural Turkish.

Because istemek means to want, and in Turkish it is commonly followed by an infinitive.

So:

• çekmek = to photograph / to take pictures
• istiyor = he/she wants

Together:

• çekmek istiyor = he/she wants to photograph

This is the normal pattern:

• gitmek istiyor = he wants to go
• yemek istiyor = he wants to eat
• öğrenmek istiyor = he wants to learn

Also notice the Turkish word order: the main verb usually comes at the end, so the whole object phrase comes before çekmek istiyor.

Because the two verbs refer to different times.

• almış = he bought / has apparently bought
• istiyor = he wants

The purchase happened before now, but the desire is current. So the sentence means:

• he has bought a new camera
• now he wants to photograph all the farm animals

This mix is completely normal in Turkish, just as it is in English:

• He bought a camera and now he wants to use it

If you used istedi, it would mean he wanted, which sounds more clearly past and not necessarily true now.

The punctuation helps separate the ideas.

• The comma after Hayırlı olsun separates that set expression from the rest of the sentence.
• The semicolon links two closely related statements:
  • amcam yeni bir fotoğraf makinesi almış
  • çiftlikteki hayvanların hepsini çekmek istiyor

So the semicolon works a bit like a strong comma or a light full stop.

In everyday writing, you might also see:

• a full stop
• a comma
• sometimes even çünkü or another connector if the speaker wants to make the relationship more explicit

But the semicolon is perfectly fine here because the two clauses are closely connected.