Amcam gelmeden çay içmeyeceğim.

Amcam means my uncle.

It is made of:

• amca = uncle
• -m = my

With close family words in Turkish, this possessive ending is very common when you mean my uncle, my mother, my brother, and so on.

So:

• amca = an uncle / uncle
• amcam = my uncle

Gelmeden comes from the verb gelmek = to come.

It breaks down like this:

• gel- = come
• -me- = negative marker
• -den = an ending that here gives the sense of without doing / before doing

So gelmeden literally has the idea of without coming, but in this sentence it is naturally understood as:

• before my uncle comes
• until my uncle comes

This is a very common Turkish structure.

Grammatically, the form is built from the negative converb, so its literal core is without coming.

But in real usage, it often translates more naturally as:

• before ... comes
• until ... comes

In this sentence, Amcam gelmeden çay içmeyeceğim, the best natural meaning is:

• I won’t drink tea before/until my uncle comes.

So the literal structure and the natural English meaning are not always identical.

Turkish often expresses ideas like before, until, or without doing through verb endings rather than separate words.

Here, gelmeden does the job that English often does with a whole phrase like:

• before my uncle comes
• until my uncle comes

A very close alternative would be:

• Amcam gelene kadar çay içmeyeceğim.

That also means I won’t drink tea until my uncle comes.

So Turkish has more than one way to express this idea.

İçmeyeceğim breaks down into several pieces:

• iç- = drink
• -me- = negation
• -(y)ecek = future tense
• -im / -ım type personal ending = I

So:

• içeceğim = I will drink
• içmeyeceğim = I will not drink

The y appears as a buffer sound between vowels.

So the meaning is clearly I will not drink.

Because the speaker is talking about a future action or future refusal.

İçmeyeceğim = I will not drink

This fits the idea that the speaker has not drunk the tea yet and is saying what they will or will not do before the uncle arrives.

If you used a present/aorist-type form like içmem, it could mean something like:

• I don’t drink
• I won’t drink

But içmeyeceğim is more explicit and concrete about a future situation.

In Turkish, the verb ending usually shows the subject.

In içmeyeceğim, the ending already tells us the subject is I.

So ben is not necessary.

You could say:

• Ben amcam gelmeden çay içmeyeceğim.

But that would add emphasis to I. Without ben, the sentence is perfectly normal.

Because çay here is a non-specific / indefinite direct object.

In Turkish:

• çay içmek = to drink tea
• çayı içmek = to drink the tea / a specific tea

So in this sentence, çay means tea in a general sense, not a particular cup or serving already identified in the conversation.

If you said:

• Amcam gelmeden çayı içmeyeceğim

that would more likely mean:

• I won’t drink the tea before my uncle comes

with a more specific tea in mind.

The person doing the coming is amcam = my uncle.

So:

• Amcam gelmeden = before my uncle comes

This is important because Turkish can leave subjects unstated, but here the subject of the subordinate part is stated clearly.

Yes, Turkish word order is flexible, but some orders sound more neutral than others.

This sentence:

• Amcam gelmeden çay içmeyeceğim.

is very natural.

You might also hear:

• Çay içmeyeceğim amcam gelmeden.

But that can sound more marked or stylistically different, depending on context and emphasis.

The version with amcam gelmeden first is a very normal way to set up the time condition before the main statement.

The main clause is negative:

• içmeyeceğim = I will not drink

The subordinate form gelmeden also contains the negative marker -me-, but here it does not simply mean my uncle will not come.

Instead, as part of this construction, it helps create the meaning before coming / without coming.

So although you can see negation in both places morphologically, the overall sentence means:

• I won’t drink tea until/before my uncle comes

not

• My uncle won’t come and I won’t drink tea

That would mean something different.

• Amcam gelmeden çay içmeyeceğim = I won’t drink tea until/before my uncle comes
• Amcam gelince çay içmeyeceğim = When my uncle comes, I won’t drink tea

So:

• gelmeden focuses on the time before his arrival
• gelince means when / once he comes

They are not interchangeable here.

The dictionary forms are:

• gelmek = to come
• içmek = to drink

In the sentence, they appear as:

• gelmeden from gelmek
• içmeyeceğim from içmek

This is very common in Turkish: dictionary verb forms end in -mek or -mak, but in real sentences those endings change as other suffixes are added.