toegeungire mateueseo dubureul sayo.

퇴근길에 means on the way home from work or during your commute home after work.

It breaks down like this:

• 퇴근 = leaving work, getting off work
• 길 = road, way, route
• 퇴근길 = the way home from work
• 에 = on, at, during, in that context

So 퇴근길에 is a very common expression for something that happens while you are heading home from work.

This is a very common learner question, because both 에 and 에서 can relate to place.

In this sentence, they do different jobs:

• 퇴근길에: 에 marks the time/occasion/situation of the action
  → on the way home from work
• 마트에서: 에서 marks the location where the action happens
  → at the mart / in the supermarket

So:

• 퇴근길에 = when / during what situation?
• 마트에서 = where is the buying happening?

That is why 에서 is used with 마트, because 사다 is an action, and 에서 usually marks the place where an action takes place.

를 is the object marker. It shows what thing is being bought.

• 두부를 사요 = buy tofu

Here:

• 두부 = tofu
• 를 = marks tofu as the direct object
• 사요 = buy

In English, word order usually tells you what the object is. In Korean, particles like 을/를 make that role clear.

Because Korean is normally a subject-object-verb language, so the verb usually comes last.

This sentence follows a very typical Korean pattern:

• 퇴근길에 = time/situation
• 마트에서 = place
• 두부를 = object
• 사요 = verb

So Korean often sounds like:

On the way home from work, at the mart, tofu buy.

That is completely normal in Korean.

Yes. 사요 comes from the dictionary form 사다, which means to buy.

How it changes:

• dictionary form: 사다
• stem: 사-
• polite ending: -아요
• 사 + 아요 → 사아요 → 사요

So 사요 is the present polite style form.

This is the style learners often learn early because it is polite and very common in everyday conversation.

It can mean more than just strict present tense.

In Korean, the plain present polite form often covers:

• habitual actions
  → I buy tofu on the way home from work
• general statements
  → I buy tofu at the mart on my way home
• near-future plans, depending on context
  → I’m buying / I’ll buy tofu on the way home from work

So even though 사요 is technically the present form, Korean often uses it where English might use buy, am buying, or will buy.

Context tells you which one is meant.

It would sound unnatural here.

For 퇴근길, Korean normally uses 에, not 에서, because 퇴근길 is being treated more like a time/occasion/path context than a concrete place where the action occurs.

• natural: 퇴근길에 마트에서 두부를 사요
• unnatural: 퇴근길에서 마트에서 두부를 사요

The actual place where the buying happens is 마트에서, so 에서 belongs there.

Because Korean often drops the subject when it is obvious from context.

So this sentence could be expanded to:

• 저는 퇴근길에 마트에서 두부를 사요.

But in natural Korean, if the listener already knows who you are talking about, the subject is often omitted.

This is extremely common in Korean and one of the biggest differences from English.

Yes. 퇴근하는 길에 is also natural.

Compare them:

• 퇴근길에 = on the way home from work
  → shorter, fixed expression, very common
• 퇴근하는 길에 = while going home from work
  → a little more descriptive

Both are natural, but 퇴근길에 feels like a compact noun phrase, while 퇴근하는 길에 feels more explicitly verbal.

A simple beginner-friendly rule is:

• 에 often marks:

  • destination
  • time
  • existence
  • occasion/context

• 에서 often marks:

  • the place where an action happens

Examples:

• 학교에 가요 = go to school
• 집에 있어요 = be at home
• 아침에 먹어요 = eat in the morning
• 식당에서 먹어요 = eat at a restaurant

In your sentence:

• 퇴근길에 = during/on the way home from work
• 마트에서 = at the mart, where the buying happens

Not really. In Korean, 마트 usually means a supermarket or large grocery store.

So when learners see 마트, it is often better to think:

• mart
• supermarket
• grocery store

rather than the English word market in the sense of an outdoor market or street market.

Because Korean does not have articles like a, an, and the.

So 두부를 사요 could mean:

• buy tofu
• buy some tofu
• buy the tofu

The exact meaning depends on context.

Korean often leaves this kind of detail unstated unless it is important.

By itself, it can be either.

It could mean:

• a habit: I buy tofu at the mart on the way home from work
• a current/near-future plan: I’m buying / I’ll buy tofu at the mart on the way home from work

Korean often leaves this open unless extra context makes it clear.

For example:

• 보통 퇴근길에 마트에서 두부를 사요.
  = I usually buy tofu at the mart on the way home from work.

• 오늘 퇴근길에 마트에서 두부를 사요.
  = I’m buying tofu at the mart on the way home from work today.

A learner-friendly pronunciation guide would be roughly:

• 퇴근길에 → 퇴근기레
• 마트에서 → 마트에서
• 두부를 → 두부를
• 사요 → 사요

One important sound change is:

• 길에 is often pronounced more like 기레

That happens because the final ㄹ in 길 links into the following 에.

So the full sentence may sound approximately like:

퇴근기레 마트에서 두부를 사요

That is normal spoken pronunciation.

Yes, to some extent.

Because Korean uses particles, word order is more flexible than English. But the most neutral order is:

• time/context
• place
• object
• verb

So this is very natural:

• 퇴근길에 마트에서 두부를 사요.

You could also say:

• 마트에서 퇴근길에 두부를 사요.

But that sounds less natural in everyday speech unless you are emphasizing something.

So learners should usually stick with the original order unless they have a reason to change it.