Time / Place Particle - 에

Please refer to Korean Listening Exercise - Time/Place Particle 에 for the audio recording of the sentences found in this lesson.

For the video recording of this lesson, please see below. :)

The Time/Place Particle, 에, is used for any words related to time and place.

The 에 particle phrase is usually placed at the beginning of a sentence after a subject.

샘 = Sam
한국 = Korea
가다 = go
준수 = Jun-su
5월 = May
오다 = come

• 샘은 한국에 갔다 = Sam went to Korea [Sam, to Korea, went]
• 준수는 5월에 왔다 = Jun-su came in May [Jun-su, in May, came]

Note: 1월 is January, 2월 is February and so on.

You can also make long sentences like the following examples:

• 샘 은 작년 10월 가을에 한국에 갔다 = Sam went to Korea last year in October during the autumn season  [Sam, last year, in October, in Autumn, to Korea, went]
• 준수는 2000년도 여름에 호주에 왔다 = Jun-su came to Australia in summer 2000. [Jun-su, in 2000, in summer, to Australia, came]

작년 = last year
10월 = October
가을 = autumn
2000년도 = in the year 2000
여름 = summer
호주 = Australia

Note: 에 is used for words both with or without a final consonant.

• 학교에 = to school
• 병원에 = to hospital

Please note also that when 에 is used as a Place Particle, it is usually used with 'go' and 'come' to indicate a place to which you're going or coming, and 에 functions like 'to' in English. For example, 공원에 = to a park, 영국에 = to Britain and 공항에 = to the airport.

When you want to say you did something at a particular place 'for a certain period of time,' 에서 is used for that location or place. In this case, the function of 에서 is similar to "in, at or on" in English. For example,

• 공원에서 놀았다 = played (had fun) at the park [At the park, (we) played (had fun)]
• 영국에서 지냈다 = stayed in Britain [In Britain, (I) stayed]
• 공항에서 기다렸다 = waited at the airport [At the airport, (we) waited]

공원 = a park
놀다 = play, have fun
영국 = Britain
지내다 = stay
공항 = airport
기다리다 = wait


However, when 'was' and 'in' are both used in a sentence, you can use 에 instead of 에서 for some strange reason I do not know. The following two sentences mean exactly the same.

• 영국에서 있었다 = I was in Britain
• 영국에 있었다 = I was in Britain

But in the case of other verbs, 에 is not allowed.

• 공원에 놀았다
• 영국에 지냈다
• 공항에 기다렸다

Here are a few more examples:

• 시골에 갔다 = went to a countryside
• 친구가 병원에 방문왔다 = A friend of mine came (to visit me) to hospital
• 집에 있었다 = was home
• 대학에서 강의를 들었다 = listen to a lecture at the university
• 많은 사람들이 놀이 공원에 왔다 = A lot of people came to the theme park
• 아침에 시리얼을 먹었다 = I ate cereal in the morning [In the morning, I ate cereal]
• 오후 2시에 비가 내렸다 = It started raining at 2 o'clock in the afternoon [Lit. The rain fell]

시골 = countryside
가다 = go
친구 = a friend
병원 = a hospital
방문 = a visit
오다 = come
방문오다 = came to visit
집 = home, house
있다 = be
대학 = college, university
강의 = a lecture
듣다 = listen, hear
많다 = a lot, many
사람 = a person
사람들 = people (들 is attached to a noun to make it plural)
놀이 공원 = a theme park
아침 = morning
시리얼 = cereal
먹다 = eat
오후 = afternoon, pm
2시 = 2 o'clock (1시 is 1 o'clock, 7시 is 7 o'clock and so on)
비 = rain
내리다 = fall down