Breakdown of chinguhanteseo sosigi eobseoyo.
~이~i
subject particle
친구chingu
friend
없다eobsda
to not have
~한테서~hanteseo
dative-from particle
Questions & Answers about chinguhanteseo sosigi eobseoyo.
What does the particle combo in 친구한테서 mean, and how is it different from 한테, 에게서, 에게, and 로부터?
- 한테서 = from (a person), focusing on the source. Very common in speech.
- 한테 = to (a person). In everyday speech it can also mean from with certain verbs (받다, 듣다, 전화/연락 오다), but with nouns like 소식 the standard is 한테서.
- 에게서 = from (a person), more formal/written than 한테서.
- 에게 = to (a person), formal counterpart of 한테.
- 로부터 = from, quite formal/literary; often used for institutions or abstract sources (정부로부터, 회사로부터, 영향으로부터).
Examples:
- 친구한테서 소식이 없어요. (No news from my friend.)
- 선생님에게서 이메일이 왔어요. (More formal.)
- 회사로부터 통보를 받았어요. (From a company, formal.)
- 친구한테 전화가 왔어요. (Colloquial “from.”)
Why is it 없어요 and not something like 안 있어요?
Korean expresses existence/non-existence with the pair 있다/없다. You don’t normally negate 있다 with 안 to say “not exist”; you use 없다.
- Correct: 소식이 없어요., 시간이 없어요.
- Not used for existence: 소식을 안 있어요. Note: 안 있다 can appear to mean “not stay/be (somewhere)” in some contexts, but for “there is no …,” the natural form is always 없다.