Being alive or not actually changes the grammar in Korean.
Let’s talk about to and from real quick.
So here’s the rule
If you’re going to a place or a thing, use -에.
If you’re going to a person or an animal, use -한테.
For example
I want to go home. – 집에 가고 싶어요.
I want to go to mom. – 엄마한테 가고 싶어요.
Here’s the thing about formality.
Writing or speaking formally? Use -에게.
For daily conversations? Use -한테.
Want to be respectful? Then use -께.
And remember, companies don’t get honorifics. So “Talk to the company”? It should be “회사에 말해요,” not “회사께 말해요.”
Now for from.
I got it from my friend. – 친구한테 받았어요.
If you want to highlight the source, “친구한테서 받았어요.”
Think of ‘-서’ as a little tag that shows the starting point of an action.
I came from the UK. – 영국에서 왔어요.
I came to the UK. – 영국에 왔어요.
“영국서 왔어요” is old-fashioned but still means “I came from the UK.” These days, ‘-에서’ is the normal one.
Over time, lots of compound particles formed by combining with ‘-서’ and they settled into fixed meanings.
Alive or not, grammar matters.
