To smoothly shift your focus from one subject to another—expressing "as for..." or "when it comes to..."—Turkish uses the word gelince.
The Topic-Shifting Formula
Take the new topic, attach the dative case suffix, and follow it with gelince (literally "when it comes").
Formula: Noun / Pronoun + Dative Suffix (-(y)a / -(y)e) + gelince
Shifting to Pronouns
When saying "as for me" or "as for you," remember that the pronouns for "I" (ben) and "you" (sen) change their root vowels when taking the dative case, becoming bana and sana.
| My sister is very skillful at using computers; as for me, I am quite lazy. | Ablam bilgisayar kullanmakta çok becerikli; bana gelince, ben oldukça tembelim. |
Shifting to People and Nouns
Attach the dative suffix following standard vowel harmony: -a for back vowels (a, ı, o, u) and -e for front vowels (e, i, ö, ü). If the noun ends in a vowel, insert the buffer letter y.
| The youth grasp technological tools quickly; as for the elderly, they struggle. | Gençler teknolojik aletleri çabuk kavrıyor; yaşlılara gelince, onlar bocalıyor. |
| As for young people, technological perception is very different. | Gençlere gelince, teknolojik algı çok farklı. |
| As for my grandfather, he doesn't realize that doing research on the internet is not laborious. | Büyükbabama gelince, internette araştırma yapmanın zahmetli olmadığını fark etmiyor. |
Shifting to Activities
To shift the topic to an activity, turn the verb into a verbal noun using -ma or -me, add the buffer y, and then the dative suffix. This always results in -maya or -meye.
| As for messaging, we use it every day, but my grandmother likes video calls. | Mesajlaşmaya gelince, biz her gün kullanıyoruz ama büyükannem görüntülü görüşmeyi seviyor. |
| As for updating the applications, it is not a big problem. | Uygulamaları güncellemeye gelince, bu büyük bir problem değil. |