Korean Location Particles ~에 and ~에서

In this lesson, you will learn how to use the Korean location particles 에 and 에서. In a previous lesson about Korean particles, you learned that particles are attached to some nouns to indicate the particular function of that word in a sentence. The Korean location particles 에 and 에서 are both similar to the word ‘at’ in English. However, 에 and 에서 have slightly different meanings and are used in different situations. So, what is the difference between 에 and 에서?

Korean Location Marking Particles – 에 and 에서

에

에 is used in a sentence to mark a location where something exists, a direction in which an action goes towards, or a time at which an action takes place. Let’s look at some example sentences.

Examples

집에 고양이가 있어요. [ji-be go-yang-i-ga i-sseo-yo]
= The cat is at home.

As you can see, the location marking parting 에 in this sentence comes after 집 (house) and indicates the location where the cat (고양이) exists.

공원에 가요. [gong-wo-ne ga-yo]
= I go to the park / I am going to the park.

As you can see, the location marking particle 에 comes after 공원 (park) to indicate that the park is the place that you are going to (direction).

7시에 친구를 만났어요. [il-gop-si-e chin-gu-reul man-na-sseo-yo]
=I met my friend at seven.

As you can see, the location marking particle 에 comes after the time 일곱시 (7 o’clock) to indicate that 7 o’clock is the time at which the speaker met his/her friend.

에서

The location marking particle 에서 is mainly used to mark a word as the location where an action is taking place, or to express ‘from a place’. Let’s look at some example sentences.

Examples

학교에서 공부했어요. [hak-gyo-e-seo gong-bu-he-sseo-yo]
= I studied at school.

As you can see, 에서 is attached to 학교 (school) to indicate that the school is the place where the action (study) took place.

영국에서 왔어요. [yeong-gu-ge-seo wa-sseo-yo]
= I came from England.

As you can see, in this sentence 에서 is attached to 영국 (England) to mark England as the place where the speaker came from.

Review: 에 or 에서

Here are some example dialogues that include the Korean location particles 에 and 에서. The dialogues also include the following keywords which you may not have studied yet:

• 어디 [eo-di] = where
• 언제 [eon-je] = when
• 집 [jib] = house
• 학교 [hak-kyo] = school
• 미국 [mi-guk] = America (U.S.A)
• 자다 [ja-da] = to sleep
• 운동하다 [un-dong-ha-da] = to exercise

Read the Korean sentences and try to guess what it means. Then, click on the ‘English’ tab to check the answer.

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