chinguhante yeopseoneun bonaessjiman soponeun ajik mos bonaesseo.

friend

Breakdown of chinguhante yeopseoneun bonaessjiman soponeun ajik mos bonaesseo.

• ~는: topic particle
• ~한테: dative particle
• 보내다: to send

Questions & Answers about chinguhante yeopseoneun bonaessjiman soponeun ajik mos bonaesseo.

What does 친구한테 mean here, and why is 한테 used?

친구한테 means to a friend.

Here, 한테 marks the recipient of the sending action, so it works like to in English:

• 친구한테 엽서를 보냈어 = I sent a postcard to a friend

A few useful notes:

• 한테 is very common in everyday speech.
• 에게 means the same thing but sounds a bit more formal or written.
• With people, both are common:
  • 친구한테
  • 친구에게

So in this sentence, 친구한테 tells us who received the postcard.

Why are 엽서는 and 소포는 marked with 는 instead of 을/를?

This 는 is doing a contrastive job.

If you just wanted to say I sent a postcard, you would normally use:

• 엽서를 보냈어

But in this sentence, the speaker is comparing two things:

• as for the postcard, I sent it
• as for the package, I still haven’t sent it

So:

• 엽서는 = the postcard, at least / as for the postcard
• 소포는 = the package, though / as for the package

This creates a contrast:

• postcard: sent
• package: not sent yet

That is why 는 is very natural here.

What is the difference between 엽서 and 소포?