Babaanne gelince çocuklar seviniyor.

Babaanne means paternal grandmother — your father’s mother.

Turkish often distinguishes:

• babaanne = father’s mother
• anneanne = mother’s mother
• büyükanne = grandmother in a more general sense

So a learner might notice that Turkish is more specific here than English grandmother/grandma.

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

So:

• babaanne can mean grandma, the grandmother, or Grandma, depending on context
• çocuklar can mean children or the children

You understand whether the meaning is definite or general from the situation, not from an article.

Gelince comes from:

• gel- = come
• -ince = a suffix meaning something like when, once, or upon

So gelince means when she comes / when it comes / upon coming, depending on context.

This is a very common Turkish structure. Instead of using a separate word for when, Turkish often attaches this kind of ending directly to the verb.

Not exactly.

• gelince = when / once / upon coming
• gelirse = if she comes
• geldiğinde = when she comes/came, often a bit more explicit or formal

So:

• Babaanne gelince... = When Grandma comes...
• Babaanne gelirse... = If Grandma comes...

That difference is important. -ince gives a time meaning, while -irse gives a conditional meaning.

The subject of gelince is babaanne.

So the sentence is structured like this:

• Babaanne gelince = when Grandma comes
• çocuklar seviniyor = the children are happy / get excited

A useful thing to notice is that the subject of the gelince clause does not have to be the same as the subject of the main clause.

Here:

• subject of gelince = babaanne
• subject of seviniyor = çocuklar

That is completely normal in Turkish.

Because Turkish kinship words are often used in a bare form when the relationship is already clear from context, almost like a name or title.

So Babaanne gelince... can naturally mean:

• When Grandma comes...

If you want to make the possessive explicit, you can say:

• babaannesi = his/her grandmother
• babaanneleri = their grandmother / their grandmothers

So the bare form is not wrong at all — it just sounds more like Grandma as a familiar family figure.

The verb here is sevinmek, not sevmek.

• sevmek = to love, to like
• sevinmek = to be happy, to rejoice, to get excited

So seviniyor means something like:

• is happy
• is getting happy
• rejoices
• gets excited

In this sentence, it means the children react happily when Grandma comes.

This is a common point of confusion because sev- appears in both verbs, but sevinmek is a separate verb with a different meaning.

Because Turkish -iyor does more work than English is ...ing.

In English, is coming usually sounds like something happening right now, but in Turkish -iyor can also describe:

• a present action
• a repeated situation
• a typical reaction

So çocuklar seviniyor can mean something like:

• the children get happy
• the children are happy
• the children rejoice

In context, it can describe a habitual pattern: whenever Grandma comes, this is what happens.

You could also hear çocuklar sevinir, which sounds more like a general truth or habitual fact.

Because in Turkish, when the subject is already clearly plural, the verb often stays in the singular third-person form.

So both can occur:

• çocuklar seviniyor
• çocuklar seviniyorlar

The version without -lar on the verb is very common, especially in everyday Turkish.

So this is not a mistake. Turkish does not require plural marking on the verb as strictly as English does.

Yes. Turkish word order is flexible.

This version:

• Babaanne gelince çocuklar seviniyor.

is very natural because it starts with the time clause: When Grandma comes...

Other possible orders include:

• Çocuklar babaanne gelince seviniyor.
• Çocuklar, babaanne gelince seviniyor.

These can shift emphasis slightly, but the original order is probably the most neutral and natural for a learner to remember.

It can mean both, depending on context.

-ince often covers ideas like:

• when
• once
• as soon as
• upon

So Babaanne gelince çocuklar seviniyor could suggest:

• the children are happy when Grandma comes
• the children light up as soon as Grandma arrives

The exact nuance comes from the situation, not just the suffix by itself.