에게/한테 vs 에: Giving to People or Things

English uses one little word — to — for "I gave it to my friend" and "I gave water to the plant." Korean refuses to lump those together. It sorts the receiver by a single feature: is it alive or not? A recipient that breathes and feels — a person, a dog, a cat — takes 에게 (or its casual twin 한테, or the honorific 께). A target that is a place, an institution, a plant, or a thing takes 에. The English preposition is a red herring; animacy is the whole game.

This is one of the most productive rules in beginner Korean, because it applies to a huge family of verbs: giving (주다), sending (보내다), contacting (연락하다), phoning (전화하다), writing (쓰다), teaching (가르치다). Get the animacy split right once and all of them fall into line.

Animate receivers → 에게 / 한테 / 께

If the receiver can perceive what it's getting — any person or animal — use the animate dative. Which of the three you pick is a matter of register, not grammar:

They mean the same thing; 한테 is what you actually say to a friend, 에게 is what you write, and 께 is what you use when the receiver outranks you.

The animal case is the one that surprises English speakers, because we don't usually think of a dog as a grammatical "person." Korean does: a dog can receive, so it's animate, so it's 한테/에게. A tree cannot, so it isn't.

When the receiver deserves honorific treatment, 께 travels together with the humble giving verb 드리다 and other elevated forms:

Inanimate targets → 에

If the receiver is a place, an organization, a plant, or an object — anything that cannot feel — use 에. This is the same 에 that marks static location and destination; the logic is that you are directing something at a point, not handing it to a conscious being.

The trap that catches everyone is the institution. A school, a company, a bank, a government office — these feel like they're full of people, so learners reach for 에게. But grammatically the institution itself is an inanimate entity, so it takes 에. You contact the school (에), even though a human eventually reads your message.

Contrast that last pair with their animate versions and the split jumps out. You contact a student (a person → 에게) but a school (an institution → 에):

The minimal pairs

Same verb, same sentence — only the animacy of the receiver changes, and the particle changes with it:

The verbs that trigger this choice

The animate/inanimate split isn't just about 주다. It governs a whole family of "directed-at" verbs, and once you know the family, the particle rides along automatically. Every one of these asks the same question — is the receiver alive?

• 보내다 (send), 부치다 (mail)
• 전화하다 (call), 연락하다 (contact)
• 말하다 (tell), 물어보다 (ask), 질문하다 (question)
• 가르치다 (teach), 쓰다 (write to), 배우다 (learn from — takes 에게서/한테)

The second sentence is the institution trap again in a different verb: you phone the city government (에), not a person. Whenever a new "directed-at" verb shows up, don't memorize its particle separately — just check the receiver's animacy and the rule you already know does the work.

A note on "from a person"

The mirror image of 에게 ("to a person") is 에게서 / 한테서 ("from a person"). Just as places use 에 for "to" and 에서 for "from," people use 에게 for "to" and 에게서 for "from." So a letter goes to a friend as 친구에게, and arrives from a friend as 친구에게서 (or the everyday 친구한테서). That source particle has its own page — see 에게서 / 한테서.

Common Mistakes

1. Using 에 for a person. English "to" tempts you into 에, but a person is animate and needs 한테/에게. Saying 친구에 is a classic beginner tell.

2. Using 에게 for an institution. A school or company is grammatically inanimate. The people inside don't make the institution "breathe."

3. Using 에게/한테 for a plant. A plant is alive but cannot perceive, so Korean files it as inanimate: 에.

4. Using 에 for an animal. The flip side of the plant rule: an animal can perceive, so it's animate. Dogs get 한테, not 에.

5. Using plain 한테 for someone you should respect. It's grammatically animate, so 한테 isn't wrong, but to your grandmother or your boss it lands as too casual. Reach for the honorific 께.

Key Takeaways

• Animacy decides, not English "to." People and animals → 에게 / 한테 / 께; places, institutions, plants, objects → 에.
• The three animate forms differ only in register: 한테 (casual) · 에게 (neutral/written) · 께 (honorific, with 드리다).
• Institutions are inanimate — 학교에, 회사에, 은행에 — even though humans staff them.
• Animals are animate — 강아지한테 — but plants are not — 나무에.
• "From a person" is 에게서/한테서, mirroring 에서 for places.

For the full dative picture, see 에게 / 한테: the dative, the honorific 께, and how giving and receiving verbs assign it in giving and receiving.