Bu restoran geçen yıl meşhur oldu.

Bu means this. In bu restoran, it works like a demonstrative determiner: this restaurant.

A few useful points:

• bu does not change for gender, because Turkish has no grammatical gender
• it stays bu before both singular and plural nouns: bu restoran, bu restoranlar
• if the noun later takes a case ending, the ending goes on the noun, not on bu:
  
  • bu restoran
  • bu restoranı
  • bu restoranda

Because restoran is the subject of the sentence, so it appears in its basic dictionary form.

In Turkish, the subject usually has no special ending. That basic form is often called the nominative form.

Here:

• Bu restoran = the subject
• geçen yıl = time expression
• meşhur oldu = predicate

If restoran were a definite direct object instead, you would often see the accusative ending:

• Bu restoranı biliyorum = I know this restaurant

But in your sentence, it is not an object, so no case ending is needed.

Geçen yıl is a time expression meaning last year.

It is functioning adverbially, telling you when the event happened. Turkish often uses bare time expressions like this without any extra preposition or case ending.

Examples of the same pattern:

• bugün = today
• dün = yesterday
• geçen hafta = last week
• gelecek ay = next month

So geçen yıl simply answers the question when?

Geçen comes from the verb geçmek, which often means to pass.

So literally, geçen yıl is something like the passing year or the year that passed, but in normal English we translate it as last year.

This is a very common pattern in Turkish:

• geçen hafta = last week
• geçen ay = last month
• geçen gün = the other day / recently, depending on context

So learners often benefit from remembering geçen + time word = last ...

This is a very common Turkish pattern:

adjective + olmak = to become + adjective or to be + adjective, depending on context

Here:

• meşhur = famous
• oldu = became / became to be

So meşhur oldu means became famous, not just was famous.

Turkish often uses olmak with adjectives to express a change of state:

• mutlu oldu = became happy
• hasta oldu = became sick
• zengin oldu = became rich

Because the sentence is describing a change, not just a state.

• meşhur oldu = became famous
• meşhurdu / meşhur idi = was famous

That is an important difference.

So:

• Bu restoran geçen yıl meşhur oldu = it became famous last year
• Bu restoran geçen yıl meşhurdu = it was famous last year

The first focuses on the moment or period when the restaurant gained fame. The second simply describes its condition during that time.

The -du part is the simple past tense marker.

The verb is:

• olmak = to be / become
• stem: ol-
• past tense: oldu

This tense is commonly used for definite, completed past events.

The exact shape of the ending changes because of vowel harmony and consonant assimilation:

• geldi
• baktı
• oldu
• gördü

So in this sentence, oldu marks the event as a completed past event.

That is a very common learner question.

Very roughly:

• -di / -du = definite, straightforward past
• -miş / -muş = reported, inferred, or newly realized past

So:

• meşhur oldu = it became famous
• meşhur olmuş = apparently it became famous / it seems it became famous

In a plain factual sentence like this one, oldu is the normal choice.

A speaker might use olmuş if they are reporting something they heard, or if they are reacting to new information.

Because Turkish normally prefers verb-final word order.

A very neutral Turkish sentence often looks like this:

subject + time/place/other information + verb

So your sentence follows a very normal pattern:

• Bu restoran = subject
• geçen yıl = time
• meşhur oldu = predicate with the verb at the end

This is one of the biggest differences from English, where the verb usually comes much earlier.

Yes. Turkish word order is flexible, although the verb usually still stays at the end.

For example:

• Bu restoran geçen yıl meşhur oldu.
• Geçen yıl bu restoran meşhur oldu.

Both are natural, but the emphasis changes a little.

• Bu restoran geçen yıl meşhur oldu feels like a neutral statement about this restaurant
• Geçen yıl bu restoran meşhur oldu puts more focus on last year

So the original sentence is the most neutral version, but other orders are possible for emphasis.

Yes, there are a few common alternatives.

• Bu restoran geçen yıl ünlü oldu.
  Ünlü also means famous or well-known

• Bu restoran geçen yıl meşhurlaştı.
  This uses the verb meşhurlaşmak, meaning to become famous

• Bu restoran geçen sene meşhur oldu.
  sene is another very common word for year, often interchangeable with yıl in everyday speech

These are all natural, though the original sentence is perfectly standard and clear.