Çocuklar hayvanat bahçesine gitti.

Çocuklar means children. The base word is çocuk = child.

The ending -lar / -ler is the regular Turkish plural suffix:

• çocuk = child
• çocuklar = children

Which form you use, -lar or -ler, depends on vowel harmony. Since çocuk has back vowels, it takes -lar.

It has several pieces:

• hayvanat bahçesi = zoo
• hayvanat bahçesine = to the zoo

More literally:

• hayvanat = animals / animal kingdom (an older, somewhat formal element)
• bahçe = garden
• bahçesi = its garden / animal garden

So hayvanat bahçesi is literally something like animal garden, which is the Turkish expression for zoo.

Then Turkish adds the dative ending -e / -a, meaning to:

• hayvanat bahçesi = the zoo
• hayvanat bahçesine = to the zoo

This is a very common question.

The noun hayvanat bahçesi already ends in the possessed/compound form -si:

• bahçe → bahçesi

When a case ending is added after that, Turkish often inserts a buffer consonant n:

• bahçesi
  • -e → bahçesine

So the n is not part of the dictionary form by itself; it appears to help connect the endings smoothly.

It is the dative case, which often means to, toward, or into depending on context.

So:

• hayvanat bahçesine gitti = went to the zoo

Compare:

• hayvanat bahçesinde = in/at the zoo
• hayvanat bahçesinden = from the zoo

This sentence uses -e because the action is movement toward a destination.

In Turkish, when the subject is an explicit third-person plural noun like çocuklar, the verb is often left in the singular form in everyday usage:

• Çocuklar hayvanat bahçesine gitti.
• Çocuklar hayvanat bahçesine gittiler.

Both can be correct.

Very roughly:

• gitti is extremely common and natural
• gittiler can sound a bit more explicit or emphatic about the plural subject

So this is a normal Turkish pattern: a plural subject does not always require a plural verb form the way English does.

Gitti is the simple past tense: went.

It comes from the verb gitmek = to go.

Breakdown:

• git- = go
• -ti / -dı / -di / -du etc. = past tense

So:

• gitti = he/she/it went, or with a stated subject, went

In this sentence:

• Çocuklar ... gitti = The children went ...

This happens because of consonant assimilation.

The past tense suffix is often taught as -di, but its form changes depending on the previous sound. After a voiceless consonant like t, it becomes -ti.

So:

• git-
  • -di pattern → gitti

This is a regular sound rule in Turkish, not an irregular verb.

There usually isn’t one.

Turkish has no definite article like English the. So:

• çocuklar can mean children or the children
• hayvanat bahçesine can mean to a zoo or to the zoo

Context tells you which meaning is intended. In this sentence, the natural English translation is usually The children went to the zoo.

Turkish word order is more flexible than English, but the most neutral order is usually:

• Çocuklar hayvanat bahçesine gitti.

This is basically:

• Children
  • to the zoo
    • went

Turkish often puts the verb at the end.

You can move parts around for emphasis, for example:

• Hayvanat bahçesine çocuklar gitti.
  This can emphasize to the zoo
• Çocuklar gitti hayvanat bahçesine.
  Possible in speech, but less neutral

So yes, word order can change, but the original sentence is the most standard and neutral version.

A rough English-friendly guide:

• çocuklar ≈ CHO-jook-lar
• hayvanat ≈ high-va-NAT
• bahçesine ≈ bah-che-SI-ne
• gitti ≈ git-TEE

A few useful letter notes:

• ç = ch as in chair
• ş = sh as in shoe
• c (not in this sentence except inside pronunciation patterns) usually sounds like j in jam
• ı is a vowel that does not exist in English; it sounds like a relaxed, unrounded vowel somewhat like the vowel in sofa, but farther back

Because it is a noun phrase / compound expression, not a single simple word.

Turkish often forms compounds like this:

• first noun
• second noun with a compound/possessive ending

So:

• hayvanat bahçesi = literally animal garden

Even though English uses one word, zoo, Turkish uses this multi-word expression. That is very normal in Turkish.

In some contexts, yes.

Because Turkish does not have a word exactly like English the, and because bare nouns can be somewhat flexible, hayvanat bahçesine could be understood as to the zoo or to a zoo, depending on context.

However, in a simple standalone sentence like this, English speakers will usually translate it as:

• The children went to the zoo.

That is the most natural default translation.