English lets you keep one skeleton for the whole family of transfer verbs: give X to Y, send X to Y, teach X to Y, and even receive X from Y, learn X from Y. The person on the human end is a "to/from" phrase, and English never re-marks them beyond swapping the preposition. Korean is stricter. It sorts transfer verbs into push-verbs (the thing moves away from the subject, toward another person) and pull-verbs (the thing moves toward the subject, from another person) — and it marks the person differently depending on the direction. Getting this right is what separates "I gave my friend a book" from an accidental "I gave my friend and a book."
Push-verbs: the recipient takes 에게 / 한테 / 께
With verbs that push something away from you — 주다 (give), 보내다 (send), 가르치다 (teach), 말하다 (tell) — the person who receives is a goal, so they take the dative 에게 (or casual 한테, honorific 께). The thing that moves takes the object particle 을/를. A full sentence therefore has three marked slots: subject, recipient, and object.
저는 친구에게 책을 줬어요.
jeoneun chinguege chaegeul jwosseoyo
I gave a book to a friend. (subject 저는, recipient 친구에게, object 책을)
동생에게 한국어를 가르쳐요.
dongsaeng-ege hangugeoreul gareucheoyo
I teach Korean to my younger sibling.
어머니께 꽃을 보냈어요.
eomeonikke kkocheul bonaesseoyo
I sent flowers to my mother. (honorific 께 for an elder)
The recipient is being aimed at, the same way a destination is aimed at — which is why the recipient particle is the same 에게 you would use for any animate goal. (Places take 에 instead; that split is on 에게 vs 에.)
Pull-verbs: the source-giver takes 에게서 / 한테서
Now flip the direction. With verbs that pull something toward you — 받다 (receive), 배우다 (learn), 얻다 (obtain), 듣다 (hear from) — the other person is not the goal but the source. Korean marks the source with 에게서 (or casual 한테서), literally "from a person." The 서 is the same "from/out of" element you see in 에서.
저는 친구한테서 책을 받았어요.
jeoneun chinguhanteseo chaegeul badasseoyo
I received a book from a friend. (source 친구한테서)
선생님한테서 한국어를 배웠어요.
seonsaengnimhanteseo hangugeoreul baewosseoyo
I learned Korean from the teacher.
친구에게서 이메일을 받았어요.
chinguegeseo imeireul badasseoyo
I got an email from a friend.
So the same friend is 친구에게 when you give to them but 친구에게서 when you receive from them. The person did not change — the direction of the thing did, and Korean re-labels the person to match. In casual speech the bare 한테 is often used even for the source (친구한테 받았어요), letting context supply "from"; but 에게서/한테서 makes the "from" explicit and is never wrong.
Honorific giving flips the verb, not just the particle
When an elder is involved, Korean does more than swap 에게 for 께 — it swaps the verb. Giving to a superior uses the humble verb 드리다 (not 주다) together with 께. And a superior giving to you uses the honorific 주시다 (주다 + the honorific -시-), with the giver marked by the subject-honorific 께서.
할아버지께 선물을 드렸어요.
harabeojikke seonmureul deuryeosseoyo
I gave a present to my grandfather. (humble 드리다 + 께)
할머니께서 저에게 용돈을 주셨어요.
halmeonikkeseo jeoege yongdoneul jusyeosseoyo
Grandma gave me pocket money. (honorific subject 께서 + 주시다)
Look at the second sentence closely: the grandmother is the giver, so she is the honored subject (할머니께서, with 주시다), while me is the humble recipient (저에게). Direction and status interact — the person you honor is whoever outranks you, whether they are giving or receiving. The choice between 주다 and 드리다 has its own decision page: 주다 vs 드리다.
| Situation | Verb | Recipient / source marking |
|---|---|---|
| You give to an equal | 주다 | 친구에게 / 친구한테 |
| You give to an elder | 드리다 (humble) | 선생님께 |
| An elder gives to you | 주시다 (honorific) | giver = 선생님께서 |
| You receive from an equal | 받다 | 친구에게서 / 친구한테서 |
Why English speakers keep marking the wrong noun
English word order does the work that Korean particles do. In "I gave my friend a book," the recipient is signaled purely by its position (right after the verb), so learners reach into Korean and mark 친구 with the object particle 를, as if it were a second object. But Korean has no double-object slot — only one thing can be the object (을/를), and the person must be dative. The other trap is symmetrical: because English says "receive from," learners correctly feel the "from," but then attach the wrong Korean piece, using plain 에게 (a goal marker) where the source marker 에게서 belongs.
Common Mistakes
1. Marking the recipient with 을/를. The receiver is a dative goal, never a second object.
❌ 친구를 책을 줬어요.
Wrong — you can't have two objects; the receiver must be 에게.
✅ 친구에게 책을 줬어요.
chinguege chaegeul jwosseoyo
I gave a book to a friend.
2. Using plain 에게 for the giver with 받다. With receive/learn, the person is the source, so 에게서 / 한테서 is clearer and expected.
❌ 친구에게 선물을 받았어요.
Understandable but off — for the giver-source, use 에게서/한테서.
✅ 친구에게서 선물을 받았어요.
chinguegeseo seonmureul badasseoyo
I received a present from a friend.
3. Using 주다 (not 드리다) toward an elder. Giving to a superior takes the humble verb.
❌ 선생님께 선물을 줬어요.
Wrong verb — to a superior, use humble 드리다, not 주다.
✅ 선생님께 선물을 드렸어요.
seonsaengnimkke seonmureul deuryeosseoyo
I gave a present to the teacher.
4. Using 에 (place-marker) for a human recipient. People take 에게/한테/께, even in a giving sentence.
❌ 동생에 용돈을 줬어요.
Wrong — 동생 is a person, so 에게/한테, not 에.
✅ 동생한테 용돈을 줬어요.
dongsaenghante yongdoneul jwosseoyo
I gave my younger sibling pocket money.
Key Takeaways
- Push-verbs (주다, 보내다, 가르치다) mark the recipient with 에게 / 한테 / 께; the thing given is 을/를.
- Pull-verbs (받다, 배우다, 얻다) mark the source-giver with 에게서 / 한테서 — the 서 means "from."
- The same person is 친구에게 when you give and 친구에게서 when you receive; only the direction of the thing changes.
- Honorific giving swaps the verb too: 드리다 (humble, giving up) and 주시다 (honorific, an elder giving to you), with the source marker 에게서/한테서 detailed on its own page.
- Never mark the receiver with 을/를 — Korean allows only one object per clause.
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- 에게 vs 한테: 'To a Person'TOPIK 2 — 에게 and 한테 both mark the animate recipient 'to/for a person or animal' — same meaning, different register: 에게 is neutral and written, 한테 is colloquial and spoken. Neither has an allomorph, and both are strictly separate from place-marking 에.
- 에게서 / 한테서: 'From a Person'TOPIK 2 — 에게서 (written) and 한테서 (spoken) mark the animate source — the person you receive, hear, learn, or borrow something FROM — with the formal 로부터 as a third option. They mirror the dative 에게/한테, and stay strictly separate from place-source 에서.
- 께: The Honorific 'To'TOPIK 2 — 께 is the honorific form of the dative 에게/한테, used when the recipient deserves respect — elders, teachers, bosses, parents. It travels with humble verbs like 드리다 and 여쭤보다, and swapping in plain 한테 toward an elder is a genuine politeness error.
- The Object Particle 을/를TOPIK 1 — 을/를 marks the direct object of a transitive verb — 을 after a consonant, 를 after a vowel — and because Korean tags the object explicitly, word order can move freely; the tricky part is the predicate split where 좋아하다 takes an object but the adjective 좋다 takes a subject.
- 주다 vs 드리다: Giving Up or DownTOPIK 2 — Both mean 'give', but 주다 is neutral (to a peer or junior) while 드리다 is the humble form used when the recipient outranks you — an elder, boss, teacher, or customer. The deciding factor is the recipient's status, not the giver's; 드리다 pairs with the honorific dative 께, the favor auxiliary follows suit (-아 주다 → -아 드리다), and 주시다 handles the opposite direction when a superior gives to you.