Learn Turkish: Herkes bu şehrin çok çarpık olduğunu biliyor. - Everyone knows that this city is very unplanned.

In Turkish, to say 'that [something] is [adjective]', we use the verb olmak (to be) with the factive participle -dık / -dik. The subject of the clause (bu şehir) takes the genitive case (bu şehrin), and olmak takes the matching possessive ending (olduğu). So literally, the structure translates to 'this city's being very unplanned'.

Why is there an extra '-nu' at the end of olduğunu?

The base word for 'its being' is olduğu. But this entire clause acts as the direct object of the verb biliyor (knows). Because the verb bilmek requires the accusative case for specific direct objects, we add the accusative ending -u. The -n- is a buffer letter always used after 3rd person possessive endings, giving us olduğu-n-u.

Does çarpık always mean 'unplanned'?

Not exactly. Its literal meaning is 'crooked', 'distorted', or 'skewed'. However, in the context of cities and urbanization (such as the common phrase çarpık kentleşme), it is the standard Turkish way to describe a place that is 'unplanned', 'sprawling', or 'haphazardly built'.

Why is it spelled şehrin instead of şehirin?