에 [ e ] Vs. 에게 [ ege ]
Before talking about 에 and 에게, we should check 유정명사 and 무정명사. 유정명사 is a term for nouns referring to existence that have feelings or/and emotion and are able to move such as humans and animals. 무정명사 is a term for nouns referring to existence that cannot deliver their feelings or/and emotions such as plants and things.
에 are 에게 are suffix and they both mean ‘to’ or ‘at/in’ (there are more meanings but I would like to focus on the main meanings.). The difference is the kind of nouns that they can be used with. 에 is used with 무정명사 and 에게 is used with 유정명사.
Ex)
오늘 학교에 갈거야? (Are you going to school today?)
탐은 지금 미국에 있어. (Tom is in America now.)
나무에 물 좀 줘. (Water the tree, please.)
오늘 친구에게 편지를 보냈어. (I sent a letter to one of my friends.)
너는 나에게 중요해. (You are important to me.)
When another suffix -서 [ seo ] is used with 에 or 에게 (eg. 에서, 에게서), they mean ‘from’ (again, there are more meanings but I would like to focus on the main meanings.).
Ex)
내일 부산에서 출발합니다. (I will leave from Busan tomorrow.)
컴퓨터에서 소리가 나요. (I hear noise from the computer.)
철수에게서 그 소식 들었어? (Did you hear the news from Cheolsu?)
나는 나의 애완견에게서 많은 도움을 받아. (I get a lot of help from my pet dog.)
** 한테 [ hante ] and 한테서 [ hanteseo ] are often used instead of 에게 and 에게서. To be polite (to whom the noun refers to), Koreans use 께 [ kke ] instead of 에게 but 께서 is NOT used instead of 에게서 (께서 is used for a different meaning).
Ex)
Jane한테 줄 게 없어. (I have nothing to give Jane.)
Amy한테서 전화왔어? (Any calls from Amy?)
어머니께 가자. (Let’s go to mom.)
선생님에게서 통지가 왔어요. (We got a notice from our teacher.)
