Yengem gelmeden sofraya oturmuyoruz.

Yenge is a kinship word that usually means sister-in-law or, more broadly in Turkish usage, older brother’s wife / uncle’s wife / a familiar married woman in the family circle, depending on context.

The -m at the end means my.

So:

• yenge = sister-in-law
• yengem = my sister-in-law

This is how Turkish often says possession: instead of a separate word like my, it adds a suffix to the noun.

Gelmeden comes from:

• gel- = come
• -me/-ma = negative marker
• -den/-dan = from / before / without

In this structure, -meden/-madan usually means:

• without doing
• before doing

So gelmeden means before coming or without coming, depending on context.

In this sentence, the natural meaning is:

• before my sister-in-law comes
• or more naturally in English, until my sister-in-law comes

Good question. In gelmeden, the negative marker is part of a fixed grammatical pattern: verb + -madan/-meden.

This pattern does not usually mean a simple negative action like not come on its own. Instead, it creates an adverbial meaning such as:

• without coming
• before coming

Examples:

• Yemeden çıktım. = I left without eating.
• Sen gelmeden başladık. = We started before you came.

So in yengem gelmeden, the point is not just she doesn’t come, but before she comes / until she comes.

Because the verb expression is sofraya oturmak, which literally means to sit to the table and naturally means to sit down at the table / to begin eating.

Here:

• sofra = table, especially a meal table or dining setting
• sofraya = to the table

The -ya is the dative ending, often used for direction or movement toward something.

Compare:

• sandalyeye oturmak = to sit on a chair
• sofraya oturmak = to sit down at the table

If you said sofrada, that would mean at the table in a location sense, not the usual expression used here.

It has a more specific meaning than just physically sitting.

Sofraya oturmak usually means:

• to sit down at the table
• to begin the meal
• to take one’s place for eating

So in this sentence, it is not only about sitting. It implies we do not start the meal before she arrives.

Formally, oturmuyoruz is the negative of the present continuous:

• oturuyoruz = we are sitting / we sit
• oturmuyoruz = we are not sitting / we do not sit

But in Turkish, the present continuous often covers meanings that English expresses with either:

• present continuous: we are not sitting
• simple present / habitual: we do not sit
• general present practice: we don’t sit down

So here it can mean:

• We aren’t sitting down at the table before my sister-in-law comes
• or We don’t sit down at the table before my sister-in-law comes

The exact nuance depends on context, but both are natural interpretations.

It breaks down like this:

• otur- = sit
• -mu- / -mı- / -mi- / -mü- = negative marker
• -yor = present continuous
• -uz = we

So:

• oturuyoruz = we are sitting / we sit
• oturmuyoruz = we are not sitting / we do not sit

Notice that the negative comes before -yor.

Because Turkish usually includes the subject inside the verb ending.

In oturmuyoruz, the ending -uz already means we.

So biz is optional. You could say:

• Yengem gelmeden sofraya oturmuyoruz.
• Biz yengem gelmeden sofraya oturmuyoruz.

Both are grammatical, but the version without biz is more natural unless you want emphasis.

Not necessarily. In this sentence, the subject of gelmeden is explicitly given as yengem.

So:

• Yengem gelmeden = before my sister-in-law comes
• sofraya oturmuyoruz = we do not sit down at the table

The two parts can have different subjects, and here they do:

• subordinate action: my sister-in-law comes
• main action: we sit down

That is completely normal in Turkish.

The sentence is:

• Yengem gelmeden = before my sister-in-law comes
• sofraya = to the table
• oturmuyoruz = we do not sit down

Turkish usually puts the verb at the end, so the final verb is very typical.

A natural structural view is:

[Time clause] + [object/complement] + [main verb]

So the sentence literally feels like:

Before my sister-in-law comes, to the table we do not sit.

That is normal Turkish word order.

Not exactly as the best translation, though it is close in idea.

The Turkish sentence more directly means:

• We don’t sit down at the table before my sister-in-law comes
• We wait until my sister-in-law comes before sitting at the table

Unless she comes can sound a bit different in English, as if her arrival is a condition that may or may not happen at all. The Turkish sentence is usually more about timing than that kind of condition.

So before/until she comes is more accurate.

Yes. A very common alternative is:

• Yengem gelmeden önce sofraya oturmuyoruz.

Here önce means before, and it makes the meaning more explicit.

Both are correct, but:

• gelmeden already naturally gives the before/without coming sense
• gelmeden önce is a bit more clearly before she comes

Another alternative with a slightly different feel is:

• Yengem gelince sofraya oturuyoruz. = We sit down at the table when my sister-in-law comes.

That version states what happens after her arrival, instead of saying what does not happen before it.

It could be either, depending on context.

It can describe:

1. A current situation

   • We aren’t sitting down at the table before my sister-in-law comes.

2. A habit or family custom

   • We don’t sit down at the table before my sister-in-law comes.

Turkish -yor forms often allow both interpretations, so context tells you which one is intended.