Buraya gelmişken biraz çay içelim.

to drink

Breakdown of Buraya gelmişken biraz çay içelim.

• çay: the tea
• biraz: some
• buraya: here

Questions & Answers about Buraya gelmişken biraz çay içelim.

What does gelmişken mean in this sentence?

Gelmişken is a very common Turkish form meaning something like:

• since (someone) has come
• now that (someone) is here
• while we’re at it / while we’re here

It is built from:

• gel- = to come
• -miş = a suffix often connected with a completed action or a resulting state
• -ken = while/when

So gelmişken does not simply mean coming. It means more like having come already / now that the coming has happened.

In this sentence, Buraya gelmişken biraz çay içelim is very naturally understood as:

• Since we’ve come here, let’s drink some tea.
• Now that we’re here, let’s have some tea.

Why is it gelmişken and not gelirken?

This is an important distinction.

• gelirken = while coming / on the way here
• gelmişken = since we’ve come / now that we’re here already

So:

• Buraya gelirken... would talk about the time during the journey
• Buraya gelmişken... talks about the fact that the arrival has already happened

In other words:

• gelirken = while in the process of coming
• gelmişken = given that we have come already

That is why gelmişken fits a suggestion like let’s have tea. The idea is: we’re already here, so we might as well...