Object Marker for Locations (학교에 가다 vs 학교를 가다) | Korean FAQ

Did you know that you can use the object marker, yes, the object marker, in order to say to a location? Yes. Now, this usage is not really talked about too much in sources because it's easy to mess it up. Now, you might be already familiar with the regular ways that you can say to or from a location, either with 에, such as 학교에 가다, to go to school, or 으로, for example, 학교로 가다, to go to school. Now, 에 has a few different usages. It can mean at, or in, or to, and 으로 only means toward. How do I pronounce that? If you're using one of these already, that's perfectly normal. You do not need to use the object marker to say to. However, these two forms are a little bit different than each other. If you say, for example, 학교에 가다, using this particle here, it simply means you are going to, directly to, school. However, if you use 으로, the meaning is a little bit different. The feeling is slightly different than using 에, and in fact, a lot of cases 으로 will sound more natural for movement than 에 will, because 으로 means toward a location. For example, going to school, with 으로, would sound kind of like you're saying, well, I'm going that way to school. I'm going towards school. And it can sound a little more natural than just directly saying, I am going to school. I am here now, and I will be at school. Now, normally the object marker does not show a location that you're going to. This is just a specific usage case for it. Normally, it simply marks the object of an action verb. For example, if you were to say, 빌리를 좋아해요. 빌리를, or 을, after a consonant, 좋아해요. I like, what do you like? Well, you like Billy. This is what it's normally used for. But when you use it for a location, it's first of all, used in the exact same way as you would use 에 or 으로, but the feeling of it is slightly different. Let me write you an example. You'll have to excuse my messy writing. It's a little annoying to erase it, though. But 학교를, here we have the object marker, 가고 있었는데, 친구를, here's the object marker again, 만났다. 학교를 가고 있었는데, 친구를 만났다. So here we have the object marker being used as it's originally intended to mark the object, who did you meet? Well, you met your friend. But it's also being used here to mark the location, 학교. I was going to school, I met my friend. So then how does this differ from simply saying 학교에, 학교에 가고 있었는데, which is perfectly acceptable, as well as saying 학교로 가고 있었는데. Using the object marker with a location shows that you had a goal of going somewhere. You had a goal. That was your destination. This is what makes the object marker unique when you mark a location with it, because it shows that that place you're trying to go to is your current goal in mind. That's where you're going. That's your destination. I am going to go to school and nothing's going to stop me. Not quite that strong, but you get the idea. It shows that you have a specific goal for where you are going, or moving. This can be used with any verb that shows movement, such as to go, or to come, or leaving, or entering, anything like that. And this meaning is not attached to any of the other particles. We have 에, which simply means to directly go to somewhere. 으로, which means moving toward, in a general direction. And we have the object marker, which shows that that's your intended destination. So now that we know this, when do we use it? Do we just now start saying the object marker instead of 에 or 으로 whenever we're going somewhere? No. And this is probably the reason why this is not usually explained on other websites or books, at least not that I could find. Now, this is a common usage, but it's really only used in a few specific cases, and that is general locations. Let me give you some examples. Here's a list of some common locations that you might use or find the object marker being used with. The first one would be 집, for your house. 병원, hospital. 학교, for school. Next ones would be 유학, studying abroad. 여행, which is taking a trip. You'll often hear 여행 가다. 여행을 가다, instead of 여행으로 or 여행에 가다. 산, mountains or nature things will often have this marker attached as well. 시집 or 장가, for getting married. And then 군대, going to the military. However, besides these few situations, you're not really going to find the object marker used everywhere in Korean. I would avoid using this unless you're really comfortable with first how 에 and 으로 are used. And then when you do use it, stick to simple general locations and don't just use it to say that you're going to your friend's party or something like that. So if you have your own questions for me, feel free to leave them on the comment section and I'll make a video about it in the future. Thanks for watching and I will see you guys again next time. 그럼 다음에 또 봐!