LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

KOREAN PARTICLES (FROM): ~에게서/한테서/(으)로부터

You learned that ~에서 can be used to mean "from" in a wide variety of situations. ~에게서/한테서 can also have the translation of "from," but they are used in a more restricted way.

~에게서/한테서 has the meaning that is opposite of ~에게/한테/께, which means it is used when somebody receives something from somebody. These particles are attached to the person from whom one receives something. For example:

나는 나의 여자친구에게서 편지를 받았어 - I received a letter from my girlfriend

The "thing" that is being received doesn't need to be something physical. It could be something abstract like stories, explanations, or other things. For example:

저는 교감선생님에게서 한국어를 배웠어요 - I learned Korean from my vice principal
저는 그것을 친구한테서 들었어요 - I heard that from my friend

A very similar particle is ~(으)로부터. This particle can also be attached to the person from whom one receives something. For example:

나는 나의 여자친구로부터 편지를 받았어 - I received a letter from my girlfriend
저는 교감선생님으로부터 한국어를 배웠어요 - I learned Korean from my vice principal
저는 그것을 친구로부터 들었어요 - I heard that from my friend

~(으)로부터 can also be used when receiving something from a non-person thing (a company/the government/etc). For example:

나는 돈을 정부로부터 받았어 - I received money from the government
이것을 하늘로부터 받았어요 - I received this from the sky (heavens)

However, you cannot use ~에게서/~한테서 to indicate that you received something from a non-person.

To summarize, ~(으)로부터 can be used to indicate that one receives something from a person or non-person. ~에게서 and ~한테서 have a similar meaning, but can only be used when one receives something from a person.