bongtue jusoreul jeokgo uchetonge neoheosseo.

destination particle

Breakdown of bongtue jusoreul jeokgo uchetonge neoheosseo.

• ~를: object particle
• ~에: location particle
• ~고: and

Questions & Answers about bongtue jusoreul jeokgo uchetonge neoheosseo.

How is this sentence put together grammatically?

A useful breakdown is:

• 봉투에 = on the envelope / to the envelope
• 주소를 = the address (direct object)
• 적고 = write and / wrote and then
• 우체통에 = into the mailbox / postbox
• 넣었어 = put in (past tense, casual speech)

So the structure is basically:

[place] + [thing written] + write-and + [destination] + put

Korean often puts the main action at the end, so the final verb 넣었어 finishes the whole sentence.

Why is 에 used twice? Does it mean the same thing both times?

Not exactly, though it is the same particle.

• 봉투에 주소를 적다: here 에 marks the place/surface where something is written, so it feels like on
• 우체통에 넣다: here 에 marks the destination/location something is put into, so it feels like in/into

So 에 is a very flexible location/destination particle. In English we use different prepositions like on, in, and into, but Korean often uses 에 for all of these depending on the verb.

Why is it 주소를 적고, not 주소에 적고?