Merhaba !

I have some trouble understanding some grammatical points in the text I´m trying to read....

- Sonra Fabius nerede olduğumuzu anlatmaya koyuldu

- yani insanların orada olduğumuzu anladı. I can grasp the main meaning, but I don´t understand how olduğumuzu is formed or how it´s used. 

Could someone help ? 

Thank you !

ol|duğ|umuz|u = verb stem + participle marking -DIK- + possessive suffix pl 1st + accusative ending

1. -DIK- participle is used in an indirect question.

Fabius  -  SUBJECT

Fabius koy|ul|du  -  ´Fabius was put/ordered´

Fabius anlat|ma|y|a koyuldu  -  ´Fabius was ordered to tell´

To tell what? The embedded sentence is

                           Neredeydik? ´Where were we/have we been?´

When we make the sentence a constituent (OBJECT) of the sentence frame, -DIK- participle must be used. We ask the ol- stem for help. The personal ending changes into a possessive suffix and the whole package is marked with accusative.

2. Are you sure you have copied it correctly, Annabelle? I see a contradiction. Maybe

                            yani insanların orada olduğunu anladı

But maybe I am wrong. Or maybe more words are needed to understand it.

yani insanların orada olduğumuzu anladı.

To make it sense , we have to get rid of -ın.

  so, people understood [found out, realized] that we have been [were] there.

  yani insanlar  orada olduğumuzu anladı.

Yep.

Hello, I had written an article about "olduğunu" 

http://blog.learnturkisheasy.com/2012/07/oldugunu-that-is.html

After you read that lesson,

just replace the subject he/she/it with we.

Hope that helps.

Thanks a lot everybody, that really helped ! 

Annabelle

Any action + koyulmak generally signifies one´s commencement of that action 

EXAMPLE

Anlatmaya koyuldu He/she started telling

Yürümeye koyuldu He/she started walking

Sorry, I forgot. It is reflexive. And konmak is passive. Good you reminded us, AlphaF.