Dede gelince küçük çocuk ona sarılmadan edemedi.

Gelince comes from gelmek (to come) + -ince/-ınca.

In this sentence, gelince means something like:

• when he came
• when Grandpa arrived
• upon arriving

So:

• Dede gelince = when Grandpa came / when Grandpa arrived

The suffix -ince/-ınca makes a time clause. It often corresponds to English when, once, or as soon as, depending on context.

Other examples:

• Eve gelince yemek yedi. = When he came home, he ate.
• Seni görünce sevindim. = When I saw you, I got happy.

Dede means grandfather / grandpa.

A learner may expect dedem, which literally means my grandfather. But Turkish often uses family words like names or titles, especially when the person is already clear from context.

So Dede here can work like:

• Grandpa
• Grandfather

without explicitly saying my.

This is very natural in Turkish. Similar usage happens with:

• Anne geldi. = Mom came.
• Baba oturuyor. = Dad is sitting.

So Dede gelince can sound like When Grandpa arrived rather than When my grandfather arrived, even though English often prefers a possessive.

Ona is the dative form of o.

• o = he / she / it / that
• ona = to him / to her / to it

It is used here because the verb sarılmak (to hug / embrace) takes the dative, not a direct object.

So in Turkish you do not say:

• onu sarılmak ❌

You say:

• ona sarılmak = to hug him/her

This is a very important verb pattern to learn:

• sarılmak + dative

Examples:

• Anneme sarıldım. = I hugged my mother.
• Arkadaşıma sarıldı. = He/She hugged his/her friend.

So ona refers to Grandpa here: to him.

Because sarılmak is one of those Turkish verbs that requires the dative case.

English says:

• hug someone

But Turkish structures it more like:

• hug oneself toward someone
• in normal Turkish grammar terms: sarılmak + dative

So:

• ona sarılmak = to hug him/her
• çocuğa sarılmak = to hug the child

This is not unusual in Turkish. Many verbs take cases that do not match English patterns exactly.

A few similar things to remember:

• bakmak + dative = look at
  • Bana baktı. = He looked at me.
• yardım etmek + dative = help
  • Ona yardım etti. = He helped him.

So this is a verb-pattern issue, not a special feature of this sentence alone.

This is a very common Turkish pattern:

-madan / -meden edememek

It means:

• to be unable to refrain from doing
• to be unable not to do
• more naturally in English: to be unable to help doing
• couldn’t resist doing

So:

• sarılmadan edemedi = he/she couldn’t help hugging him
• literally: he/she couldn’t do without hugging him

This is an idiomatic structure, and it is extremely useful.

More examples:

• Gülmeden edemedim. = I couldn’t help laughing.
• Sormadan edemeyeceğim. = I can’t help asking.
• Bakmadan edemedi. = He/She couldn’t help looking.

So the sentence is not just saying that the child hugged Grandpa. It says the child felt such a strong impulse that not hugging him was impossible.

Good question. This confuses many learners.

By itself:

• sarılmadan = without hugging

But in the full pattern:

• sarılmadan edemedi

the meaning becomes idiomatic:

• he couldn’t help hugging him

The logic is roughly:

• He could not manage to remain without hugging him.

So the negative part is built into the expression. It is not a normal literal negative anymore; it is part of a set phrase.

You can think of this pattern as a whole unit:

• -madan/-meden edememek = can’t help doing

That is the safest way to learn it.

Because edemedi means could not do, while etmedi means simply did not do.

This sentence needs the idea of inability:

• sarılmadan edemedi = he couldn’t help hugging him

If you said etmedi, the meaning would break.

Also, the verb etmek often appears as ed- before some suffixes:

• eder
• ediyor
• edemedi

So this form is normal:

• edemedi = could not do

In this sentence, edemedi is part of the fixed expression -madan edememek.

Küçük çocuk literally means:

• small child
• little child
• young child

It emphasizes that the child is little/young. It is not just çocuk (child), but specifically a little child.

So:

• küçük = small / little
• çocuk = child

Together:

• küçük çocuk = the little child

Turkish does not have articles like a and the, so whether English uses a little child or the little child depends on context.

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

So words like:

• dede
• küçük çocuk

do not need an article.

English must choose:

• a grandfather / the grandfather
• a little child / the little child

But Turkish leaves that to context.

Sometimes bir can mean a/an:

• bir çocuk = a child

But bir is not required every time English would use a.

So küçük çocuk can be understood as:

• the little child
• a little child

depending on the situation.

The Turkish word order is very natural, but it may feel unusual from an English perspective.

Sentence:

Dede gelince küçük çocuk ona sarılmadan edemedi.

Breakdown:

• Dede gelince = when Grandpa arrived
• küçük çocuk = the little child
• ona = to him
• sarılmadan edemedi = couldn’t help hugging

A more literal order in English would be something like:

• When Grandpa came, the little child couldn’t refrain from hugging him.

Turkish often puts the time clause first, and the main verb comes at the end.

That final-verb pattern is one of the biggest differences from English.

Yes. Gelince can be slightly flexible.

Depending on context, it may suggest:

• when he came
• once he came
• as soon as he came

In this sentence, because the child immediately hugs Grandpa, English might naturally translate it as:

• As soon as Grandpa arrived, the little child couldn’t help hugging him.

So gelince does not always have only one exact English equivalent. The context tells you whether when, once, or as soon as sounds best.

Turkish o does not mark gender.

So:

• o can mean he, she, or it
• ona can mean to him, to her, or to it

In this sentence, context tells us ona refers to Dede, so in English it becomes him.

This is very common in Turkish: pronouns are often gender-neutral, and English has to choose based on context.