Korean at the Post Office: 에게/한테, 에게서, and -어 주다

At a Korean post office, one sentence does most of the work: 이 소포를 부산에 보내 주세요 = please send this parcel to Busan. Two grammar sets power it — the person particles 에게/한테 (to someone) and 에게서/한테서 (from someone), and -어 주다, which turns any verb into a polite favor: 보내 주세요 (please send it for me). Learn these and you can mail a package, ask the cost, and say who it’s going to or coming from.

In Lesson 6 you rode across town; now you’ll mail something once you arrive. The post office is the perfect place to drill direction particles, because every parcel goes to someone and every letter comes from someone.

Eleven words for the post office

A trip to the 우체국 runs on a small kit of nouns and verbs. Bank these first.

To whom, from whom? The person particles

Korea splits “to a person” and “from a person” onto two clean particle sets — and gives you a casual and a formal flavor of each. This is the heart of the lesson, so give it five focused minutes.

Two distinctions to lock in. First, 에게 = formal/written, 한테 = casual/spoken — same meaning, different setting (a letter says 부모님에게, a chat says 친구한테). Second, the direction is in the ending: bare 에게/한테 is “to,” add 서 for “from,” add 로 for “toward.” And remember the people-vs-place split: a person takes 에게/한테, a place takes 에 — 친구에게 보내요 but 부산에 보내요.

-어 주다: asking someone to do you a favor

A post-office trip is one request after another — send this, weigh that. Korean wraps requests in -어/-아 주다, which means “do (it) for me / as a favor.” Add 주세요 and it becomes a warm, polite ask.

The 주다 part is what makes a request sound considerate: 보내세요 alone can land like a flat command, but 보내 주세요 says please do this for me — the action is framed as a kindness. You’ll hear -어 주세요 constantly in shops, offices, and yes, the post office.

At the counter, the Korean way

Watch the person particles and -어 주다 carry a full post-office errand:

See the contrast snap into focus: 친구한테 보내요 sends to a friend, 친구한테서 받았어요 receives from a friend — the only difference is that little 서. And every request rides on 주세요 (보내 주세요), which is what keeps the whole exchange polite. Master the to/from pair plus -어 주다 and the post office holds no surprises.

FAQ

What is the difference between 에게 and 한테? They mean the same thing — to (a person) — but differ in register. 한테 is casual and spoken: 친구한테 전화했어요 = I called my friend. 에게 is more formal and lives in writing: 부모님에게 편지를 씁니다 = I write a letter to my parents. Both attach to a person (or animal). For places you use 에 instead, never 에게/한테: 서울에 가요, but 친구에게 줘요.

How do I say “from a person” — 에게서 or 에서? Use 에게서 / 한테서 for a person you receive something from: 친구한테서 편지를 받았어요 = I got a letter from a friend, 선생님에게서 들었어요 = I heard it from the teacher. For a place, use 에서: 서울에서 왔어요 = I came from Seoul. So the rule is people → 에게서/한테서, places → 에서. In speech 한테서 is common; 에게서 is the written, formal form.

What does -어 주다 add to a verb? -어/-아 주다 turns an action into a favor done for someone: 보내다 (send) → 보내 주다 (send for someone), 돕다 → 도와주다 (help). Add 주세요 to make a polite request: 이 소포를 보내 주세요 = please send this parcel (for me). It signals the action benefits the listener, which makes requests sound warm and natural rather than blunt — 보내세요 alone can feel like a flat order.

Next: public places and etiquette — 여기에서 사진을 찍어도 돼요?. Previous: transport and travel time. Full path: curriculum hub.