The -ince / -ınca / -unce / -ünce converb
When you want to say 'when X happens' or 'once X happens', the most natural everyday Turkish is the converb -ince / -ınca / -unce / -ünce. Eve gelince ara beni. = Call me when you get home. Onu görünce çok sevindim. = When I saw him I was very happy. The first verb is 'when' / 'once' / 'as soon as'; the main clause carries the tense and person. Think of it as a one-suffix replacement for English subordinators — no separate word for 'when' needed.
How to form it
Drop -mek/-mak and add the harmonized suffix: -ince (after e/i), -ınca (after a/ı), -unca (after o/u), -ünce (after ö/ü). Four-way harmony like -ip. gelmek → gel- + -ince → gelince. almak → al- + -ınca → alınca. görmek → gör- + -ünce → görünce. olmak → ol- + -unca → olunca. If the stem ends in a vowel, insert buffer -y-: demek → diy- + -ince → diyince (the e raises to i before -y- for some verbs — common with demek/yemek). For yemek: yiyince.
Tense and person live on the main verb
-ince is tenseless and personless. Whatever tense or person you want for the 'when' clause is determined by the main verb, plus context. Eve gelince ara. = Call (when you get home) — main verb is imperative 'you'. Eve gelince aradım. = When I got home I called — main verb is past 'I'. Eve gelince arar mısın? = Will you call when you get home? Same gelince for all three; meaning shifts with the main clause.
Subjects can be the same OR different
Unlike -ip and -erek, -ince allows different subjects. Sen gelince ben gideceğim. = When you come, I'll leave. The subject of gelince is contextual — usually whoever the main subject is, but it can flip. To explicitly mark the subject of an -ince clause, prepend the pronoun: sen gelince, ben gidince, annem arayınca. Without an explicit pronoun, default reading is same-subject as the main clause.
-ince vs -dığında
There's another 'when' construction with the participle -dığında / -dığında (covered fully in lesson 33). Quick contrast: Eve gelince and Eve geldiğinde both mean 'when you/he/she comes home'. -ince is shorter, more conversational, and often feels like 'as soon as' / 'once'. -dığında feels slightly more formal and lets you mark person more explicitly: geldiğimde = when I came, geldiğinde = when you came. Use -ince as your everyday default; -dığında when person needs to be unambiguous.
'As soon as' — same construction
-ince is also Turkish's main way to say 'as soon as'. Often you'll see it reinforced with hemen (immediately) or -r -mez (a separate construction we won't cover here). Eve gelince hemen telefon et. = Call as soon as you get home. Onu görünce hemen tanıdım. = I recognized him as soon as I saw him. The same -ince form covers both 'when' and 'as soon as' — context decides.
Negative: -meyince / -mayınca
Insert -me/-ma before the converb: -meyince / -mayınca. O gelmeyince ben gittim. = When he didn't come, I left / Since he didn't come, I left. Negative -ince often shades into 'since/because' — 'when X didn't happen' is a common reason marker.
