Learn Hardcore Korean: seorap aneseo pyeonjireul chajasseoyo.

서랍 means “drawer,” 안 means “inside,” and -에서 is the particle that marks the location of an action. So 서랍 안에서 literally means “inside the drawer” or “from inside the drawer,” indicating where the finding took place.

Why is 안에서 used instead of 안에?

Both 안에 and 안에서 relate to being inside something, but their uses differ:

안에 describes a static location (e.g. “The letter is in the drawer.”).
안에서 emphasises that an action happened there (e.g. “I found it inside the drawer.”).

Why is there no subject like “I” in the sentence?

Korean often drops the subject when it’s clear from context. Here, the polite verb ending -어요 combined with the past marker -았- strongly implies a first-person subject (“I”), so you don’t need to say 저는 explicitly.

Why is 편지를 marked with -를?

-를 (or -을 after a consonant) is the object particle in Korean. It attaches to 편지 to show that “letter” is the direct object of the verb 찾다 (“to find”).

How is 찾았어요 formed from 찾다?

Remove -다 from 찾다 to get the verb stem 찾-.
Add the past tense marker -았- (because the stem vowel ㅏ pairs with 았).
Add the polite ending -어요.
Together: 찾- + 았- + 어요 = 찾았어요 (“found”).

What’s the typical word order in this sentence?

Korean generally follows Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). Location phrases often appear before the object:

서랍 안에서 (location)
편지를 (object)
찾았어요 (verb)

Can you replace 서랍 안에서 with 서랍 속에서? Any difference?

Yes. 속 and 안 both mean “inside,” so 서랍 속에서 also means “inside the drawer.” In practice, 안 is more common in everyday speech, while 속 can sound slightly more formal or literary—but the meaning remains the same.

What’s the difference between 찾다 and 발견하다?

찾다 means “to look for and then find” something you expected or lost.
발견하다 means “to discover” something new or previously unknown (you didn’t necessarily search for it).
So using 발견했어요 would imply you stumbled upon something rather than actively searching for it.