LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

KOREAN PARTICLES ~부터 AND ~까지

Two more important Korean particles you need to know are ~부터 and ~까지.

~까지 can be used in sentences with or without ~에서 to have the meaning of "to/until a place/time." For example:

3시까지 기다릴 거예요 - I will wait until 3:00
그 여자를 지금까지 좋아했어요 - I liked that girl until now
저는 그 회사에서 5월까지 일할 거예요 - I will work at that company until May

~부터 is a particle that is often confused with ~에서 because both can translate to "from" and have seemingly overlapping usages. You learned earlier that one usage of ~에서 is to indicate the location from which an action is departing. For example:

우리는 집에서 출발할 거예요 - We will depart from home

~부터 is very similar, but is specifically identifying the place (or time) in which something starts from. If we look at this sentence:

나는 인천에서 서울까지 갈 거야 - I will depart from Incheon and go to (until) Seoul

The particle ~에서 identifies that the person departed from 인천. In theory, this could also be seen as the starting point. Therefore, this sentence could also be written as:

나는 인천부터 서울까지 갈 거야 - I will go from Incheon to Seoul

These two sentences (despite the slight nuance of "departing" and "starting") are essentially the same. In both cases, the subject is going from Incheon to Seoul. They can both be seen as correct, but most Koreans would rather use ~에서 when talking about the location in which something starts/departs.

For example, I showed these two sentences to a Korean person and asked him to explain the difference:

다음 버스는 저 정류장에서 출발할 거예요 - The next bus will depart from that station
다음 버스는 저 정류장부터 출발할 거예요 - The next bus will leave from that stop

He said: "The first one sounds more natural. The second one sounds as if the place the bus is leaving from is the bus garage... like the absolute starting point of the bus. In most situations, it would be most natural to say the first sentence."

Instead, ~부터 is commonly attached to a time to indicate when something starts. For example:

저는 어제부터 아팠어요 - I have been sick since (from) yesterday
저는 내일부터 한국어를 공부할 거예요 - I'm going to study Korean from tomorrow
내년부터 우리는 서울에서 살 거예요 - From next year, we will be living in Seoul

It is very common to see ~까지 used in the same sentence as ~부터. Here, ~부터 indicates the starting point and ~까지 indicates the end point. For example:

저는 아침부터 밤까지 공부만 했어요 - From morning to night I only studied
나는 캐나다에 1일부터 8일까지 있을 거야 - I will be in Canada from the 1st to the 8th

It is common to see "부터" attached to 처음 to translate to something like "from the start" or "from the beginning." For example:

그들은 저를 처음부터 싫어했어요 - They didn't like me from the start
우리는 그 일을 처음부터 시작할 거예요 - We will start that job/task from the beginning

When used to say "from start to finish," the word "끝" is often used to mean "finish." For example:

저는 그 상황을 처음부터 끝까지 몰랐어요 - I didn't know that situation from start to finish
저는 그것을 처음부터 끝까지 복습했어요 - I reviewed that from start to finish
저는 그 책을 처음부터 끝까지 읽었어요 - I read that book from start to finish