Learn Turkish: Biz bu mahalleye taşınalı beş yıl oldu. - It has been five years since we moved to this neighborhood.

The verb root is taşın (to move). We add the temporal suffix -alı following e-type vowel harmony. This ending translates to "since doing [the action]." Even though there is no personal "we" ending directly on taşınalı, we know who moved because of the word Biz at the beginning of the sentence.

Why is the verb at the end oldu (it was/happened) instead of olduk (we were/happened) if the sentence starts with Biz?

The pronoun Biz only acts as the subject for the moving action (taşınalı). The main verb oldu connects to the time passing (beş yıl). The sentence literally translates to "Since we moved to this neighborhood, five years happened." In Turkish, time passing like this is always expressed in the third-person singular ("it").

Why does mahalle (neighborhood) have a -ye ending here?

The verb taşınmak (to move to a new residence) requires the dative case to show the destination you are moving to. Because mahalle ends in a vowel, we use the buffer letter y before adding the dative ending -e, giving us mahalleye (to the neighborhood).

I have seen the verb taşımak before. Is it interchangeable with taşınmak?