Learn Hardcore Turkish: Kırtasiye dükkânından iki defter ve bir takvim aldım. - I bought two notebooks and a calendar from the stationery shop.

It’s the ablative case, -dan/-den/-tan/-ten, meaning “from.” Because the last vowel before the case is the back vowel ı, vowel harmony picks -dan (with a). The consonant stays as d here; it would surface as t after a voiceless consonant (e.g., parktan “from the park”).

Where does the n in dükkânından come from?

That’s a buffer -n- used when a noun with third-person possessive takes another case ending. Here we have the compound marker (3sg possessive) on dükkânı, then ablative: dükkân-ı-n-dan. Without that possessive layer, you’d get dükkandan (“from the shop”).

Does kırtasiye dükkânı mean “his/her stationery shop”?

No. This is an indefinite noun–noun compound (belirtisiz isim tamlaması) where the head noun carries the 3rd-person possessive as a compound marker: kırtasiye dükkânı = “stationery shop.” It doesn’t imply ownership. To say “his/her shop,” you’d specify the possessor: onun dükkânı.

Can I just say Kırtasiyeden ... aldım instead of kırtasiye dükkânından?

Yes. Kırtasiye by itself commonly means “stationery shop,” so Kırtasiyeden iki defter ve bir takvim aldım is perfectly natural and a bit shorter. The longer form is also fine and slightly more explicit.

Why don’t the objects take the accusative (-i)?

Accusative -ı/-i/-u/-ü marks specific/definite direct objects. Here they’re indefinite/unspecified, so they stay bare: iki defter, bir takvim. If you mean particular ones already known, use the accusative: İki defteri ve bir takvimi aldım.

Why is defter singular after iki?

After numerals, the noun stays singular in Turkish: iki defter, üç kitap. Saying iki defterler is incorrect (outside rare, special emphatic uses). The same pattern holds with quantifiers like birkaç defter.

Is bir here the number “one” or the article “a”?

It can function as either; context decides. In a counted list, bir takvim naturally reads as “one calendar.” You could drop it and say … ve takvim aldım (“… and [a] calendar”), but including bir sounds clearer and more natural in lists.

Does aldım mean “bought” or “took”? What about satın aldım?

Almak means “to take/get,” and with a store as the source (ablative -dan) it’s normally understood as “to buy.” Aldım here = “I bought.” Satın almak means “to purchase” and sounds a bit more formal or explicit.

Do I need to say Ben?

No. The verb ending -m in aldım already encodes “I.” You add Ben only for emphasis/contrast: Ben aldım = “I (as opposed to someone else) bought …”

Can I use ile instead of ve?

Yes: İki defter ile bir takvim aldım. Ve is the neutral “and.” İle/-le can also mean “with,” which may subtly group items as “together with,” but in many everyday contexts it works like “and.”

Can I change the word order?

Neutral order is place/source + objects + verb: Kırtasiye dükkânından iki defter ve bir takvim aldım. You can move the place to the end for emphasis: İki defter ve bir takvim aldım kırtasiye dükkânından (common in speech). Keep the verb at/near the end for neutral style.

How do I pronounce the dotless ı and the â in dükkân?

Dotless ı is a high, back, unrounded vowel—like the vowel in the second syllable of “sofa” or the ‘e’ in “taken” for many English speakers. In dükkân, the circumflex â traditionally signals a slightly lengthened/palatalized “a,” but in modern speech many people just say it like a normal short a. Also note the double consonant: dük-kân.

Is the spelling dükkân with a circumflex required?

No. You’ll see both dükkân and dükkan in real life. The circumflex hints at older pronunciation nuances, but meaning and usage are the same.

Why “from the shop” (-dan) and not “at the shop” (-da)?

With almak (“to buy”), Turkish idiomatically uses the ablative: you buy things “from” a place (kırtasiyeden aldım). The locative -da/-de means “in/at” and fits other verbs: Kırtasiye dükkânında alışveriş yaptım (“I shopped at the stationery store”).

Can I add tane when counting?

Yes: İki tane defter ve bir tane takvim aldım. Tane means “piece/unit” and is common in speech; it doesn’t change the number, just emphasizes counting.

What are the verb endings in aldım?

It’s past tense -DI plus 1st person singular -m: al-dı-m. The past suffix follows vowel harmony (di/dı/du/dü); here it’s -dı because the stem has a back vowel (a). For a front-vowel stem, you’d see -di (e.g., gel-di-m → geldim).