Takım onuncu oldu.

The team came tenth.

Breakdown of Takım onuncu oldu.

• olmak: to be
• takım: the team
• onuncu: tenth

Questions & Answers about Takım onuncu oldu.

Why is onuncu used instead of on?

Because onuncu is the ordinal form of on.

• on = ten
• onuncu = tenth

In this sentence, the team is being described by its position/rank, so Turkish uses the ordinal number: onuncu.

How is onuncu formed?

It is built from the number on (ten) plus the ordinal ending -uncu.

So:

• on → onuncu = tenth

This ending changes form depending on vowel harmony, so with other numbers you may see forms like:

• birinci = first
• ikinci = second
• üçüncü = third
• dördüncü = fourth

What does oldu literally mean here?

Oldu is the past tense of olmak, which often means to be, to become, or to happen, depending on context.

Here, Takım onuncu oldu literally feels like:

• The team became tenth

But in natural English, this is often translated as:

• The team came tenth
• The team finished tenth
• The team was tenth

So oldu is the verb that tells you the result was reached.