Yemin mahkemede okundu.

It follows a very common Turkish pattern:

• Yemin = the grammatical subject here
• mahkemede = place expression, in/at court
• okundu = verb, was read

So the structure is roughly:

• subject + place + verb

And, as usual in Turkish, the verb comes at the end.

mahkemede breaks down as:

• mahkeme = court
• -de = in / at / on (the locative suffix)

So mahkemede means in court or at the court.

In English, you often have to choose between in and at, but Turkish uses this one locative ending for both kinds of idea, depending on context.

This is because of vowel harmony.

The last vowel in mahkeme is e, which is a front vowel, so the locative suffix appears as -de rather than -da.

The locative has four common shapes:

• -de
• -da
• -te
• -ta

The vowel changes by vowel harmony, and the d/t changes according to sound environment.

okundu can be analyzed like this:

• oku- = read
• -n- = passive
• -du = past tense

So:

• oku-n-du = was read

This is why the sentence has a passive meaning.

Because the verb is in the passive past.

In English:

• okudu = read / he/she read
• okundu = was read

The -n- changes the verb into a passive form, and -du puts it in the past.

In this sentence, yemin is the grammatical subject.

That may feel strange to an English speaker, because logically it is the thing being read. But in a passive sentence, the thing affected by the action becomes the subject.

Compare:

• Birisi yemini okudu. = Someone read the oath.
  Here yemini is the object.

• Yemin okundu. = The oath was read.
  Here yemin is the subject.

Because yemini would be a definite direct object, and this sentence is passive.

In an active sentence, you could say:

• Görevli yemini okudu. = The official read the oath.

Here yemini is the direct object.

But in the passive:

• Yemin okundu.

the object is no longer expressed as an object. It becomes the subject-like element of the passive clause, so it appears as plain yemin, not yemini.

Turkish uses the passive for many of the same reasons English does:

• the person doing the action is unknown
• the person doing the action is unimportant
• the style is formal or official
• the focus is on the event itself

So Yemin mahkemede okundu focuses on the fact that the oath was read in court, not on who read it.

No. This sentence does not say who did it.

If you wanted to mention the agent, Turkish could do so, but it usually does not unless necessary.

For example:

• Yemin hâkim tarafından okundu. = The oath was read by the judge.

Or Turkish might simply use an active sentence instead:

• Hâkim yemini okudu. = The judge read the oath.

In this kind of legal context, it usually suggests reading aloud or reciting from a text, not silent reading.

That matters because in English an oath is usually thought of as something that is sworn, but in Turkish legal or formal contexts, it can be described as being read if the text of the oath is read aloud.

So the literal verb is read, but the real-world situation may be something like the oath was read out in court.

Because Turkish does not have articles like the and a/an in the same way English does.

So yemin can mean:

• an oath
• the oath

The exact meaning depends on context.

In many real situations, especially if the meaning has already been established, English uses the oath, while Turkish simply says yemin.

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

For example, you could also say:

• Mahkemede yemin okundu.

This is also natural. The difference is mostly about focus or emphasis.

• Yemin mahkemede okundu may feel like it starts by introducing or focusing on the oath
• Mahkemede yemin okundu puts earlier attention on the court setting

Both are grammatical.

This is also due to Turkish sound rules.

The past tense suffix has several forms:

• -dı
• -di
• -du
• -dü
• and their t versions: -tı, -ti, -tu, -tü

In okundu, the vowel is u because of vowel harmony, and the consonant is d because the sound before it is voiced.

So:

• oku-n-du

is the expected form.