Learn Turkish: İspanya'da İspanyolca öğrenmek için gramer kitabı gerekliydi. - A grammar book was necessary to learn Spanish in Spain.

In English, 'to' can mean 'in order to' (as in 'I needed a book to learn Spanish'). In Turkish, you cannot just use the infinitive verb öğrenmek by itself to show purpose. You must combine the dictionary form (infinitive) with için (for). So, öğrenmek için literally means 'for to learn' or 'in order to learn'.

Why is it gramer kitabı instead of just gramer kitap?

This is a noun compound. When you link two nouns together to create a single concept, the second noun must take a possessive suffix. Kitap takes the third-person possessive suffix -ı, linking it to gramer to mean 'grammar book'. Also notice that the hard p softens to a b before the vowel suffix.

Let's break down gerekliydi. What is the -y- doing there?

The base word is the adjective gerekli (necessary). To say it was necessary, we add the past tense suffix -di. However, because gerekli ends in a vowel, you cannot attach -di directly. You must insert the buffer letter -y-, resulting in gerekliydi.

Does İspanya'da always need that apostrophe?