Polis kurbanı buldu.

Because it is the definite direct object of the sentence.

In Turkish, a direct object often takes the accusative ending when it refers to a specific person or thing. Here:

• kurban = victim
• kurbanı = the victim / a specific victim

So Polis kurbanı buldu means the police found the victim, not just any victim.

Compare:

• Polis kurbanı buldu. = The police found the victim.
• Polis bir kurban buldu. = The police found a victim.
• Polis kurban buldu. = The police found victim(s) / found a victim in a more non-specific sense.

The main clue is the accusative ending on kurbanı.

Since kurbanı is marked as a direct object, polis is understood as the subject:

• polis = subject
• kurbanı = object
• buldu = verb

So the structure is:

• Polis → the police officer
• kurbanı → the victim
• buldu → found

Even though Turkish word order is flexible, case endings help show what each word is doing.

Buldu means found.

It comes from the verb bulmak, which means to find.

Breakdown:

• bul- = find
• -du = past tense

So:

• bulmak = to find
• buldu = he/she/it found

In this sentence, with polis as the subject, it means the police officer found.

This is because of vowel harmony.

The Turkish past tense has several forms:

• -dı
• -di
• -du
• -dü

The vowel changes to match the previous vowel in the word.

In bul-, the vowel is u, so the past tense becomes -du:

• buldu

This is a normal Turkish pattern.

Turkish usually does not have separate words like English the and a/an.

Instead, Turkish often shows definiteness in other ways, especially with the accusative ending on direct objects.

So in this sentence:

• kurbanı suggests the victim or that specific victim

And polis can be understood from context as the police officer or simply a police officer, depending on the situation.

Turkish relies much more on context and suffixes than English does.

In Turkish, polis is usually singular and means police officer.

So:

• polis = police officer
• polisler = police officers

English the police is grammatically plural, but Turkish polis is normally a singular noun.

So this sentence most naturally means:

• The police officer found the victim.

In some contexts, an English translation might still use the police, but grammatically the Turkish noun itself is singular.

Yes. Turkish word order is flexible, although Subject–Object–Verb is the basic pattern.

This sentence is in the normal order:

• Polis kurbanı buldu.

But you could also say:

• Kurbanı polis buldu.
  This emphasizes it was the police who found the victim.

• Buldu polis kurbanı.
  This is much less neutral and sounds marked or literary/dramatic.

Because Turkish uses endings like -ı, word order can change more easily than in English without making the sentence unclear.

Yes, technically it can be ambiguous.

Kurbanı can be:

1. kurban + -ı = the victim (accusative)
2. kurban + -(s)ı = his/her/its victim

So depending on context, Polis kurbanı buldu could also be interpreted as:

• The police officer found his/her victim

However, if the meaning has already been given to you as the victim, that is the intended reading here.

This kind of ambiguity is common in Turkish, and context usually makes the meaning clear.

You would usually say:

• Polis bir kurban buldu.

Here:

• bir = a / one
• kurban = victim
• no accusative ending on kurban, because it is not a specific known object

This is a very important contrast:

• kurbanı = the specific victim
• bir kurban = a victim

The last letter ı is a sound English does not have exactly.

It is:

• not the same as English ee
• not the same as uh
• a close, unrounded vowel made with the tongue high in the mouth

A rough approximation is the vowel sound in the second syllable of roses for some speakers, but that is only approximate.

Very roughly:

• kurbanı ≈ koor-bah-nuh
  but the final sound is not exactly English uh

Also note:

• u in kur- is like oo in book/put, not you
• stress is usually near the end in many Turkish words, but in a sentence, intonation matters too

Turkish often leaves out subject pronouns when they are unnecessary.

The verb form already tells you the person to some extent, and if a noun subject is present, you do not need a pronoun.

So instead of saying something like:

• O polis kurbanı buldu = He/She, the police officer, found the victim

Turkish normally just says:

• Polis kurbanı buldu

This is more natural unless you specifically want to emphasize he/she.