Learn Turkish: Birinci grup altın madalya alıyor. - The first group is getting a gold medal.

It is made by adding the ordinal suffix -(I)ncI to the number bir (one). Because bir ends in a consonant and its vowel is 'i', it follows 4-way vowel harmony and takes -inci, making birinci.

Why is it altın madalya and not a noun compound like altın madalyası?

When a noun describes the material something is made of, like altın (gold) or tahta (wood), it acts just like a regular adjective. You simply put the two words next to each other without adding any compound possessive suffixes.

Since a grup (group) has multiple people, shouldn't the verb be plural like alıyorlar?

In Turkish, collective nouns like grup (group) or takım (team) are treated as grammatically singular unless you add the plural suffix -lar to the noun itself. Since it is just grup, the verb stays in the singular form alıyor.

I learned that almak means 'to take' or 'to buy'. Why is it translated as 'getting' here?

almak is a very versatile verb! While it commonly means 'to take' or 'to buy', it is also the standard verb used for 'getting', 'receiving', or 'winning' an award or prize. The -ıyor suffix makes it present continuous ('is getting').