#lol this gif is hysterical
If you’re like me, this difference will have been puzzling you for a long time. I always notice -(으)로 가요 written in textbooks, but I just accepted that it was a variation and never figured out what it actually meant. So, let’s look at this subtle difference
First, let’s talk about -에 가요 and -(으)로 가요. Both structures mean ‘to go somewhere’, but -에 is a location marker so it marks the exact location of a place, whereas-(으)로 means ‘towards’ or ‘to’ (it also means ‘by’ or ‘by means of’ which I will not be able to cover in this post). The nuance is slightly different…. -에is talking about an exact place, whereas-(으)로 is talking about general direction.
- 어디에 가요?- Where are you going? (the exact location please)
- 어디로 가요? - Where are you going? (In what direction / towards where)
As you can see from the two sentences above, sentence one is a little more specific than sentence two, but they largely mean the same thing. I guess sentence two can be perceived as a little less intrusive. Similarly let’s compare the following two:
- 어디에 갈까?- Where should I go? (What exact place should I go to?)
- 어디로 갈까? - Where should I go? (What direction should I go in?)
Again, the first sentence is a little more specific than the second which is generally wondering which direction to head in. With this in mind, take a look at the following sentences:
- 집에 가요 - I’m going home (The focus is on your home - this is your destination)
- 집으로 가요 - I’m going towards home (maybe you are going home, or going to a restaurant near to your home first. The focus is more on the direction you are heading)
Next let’s look at a slightly different case - if we were talking about you moving house and you moved into your friend’s house, you might think that you would use -에 to indicate the location as it’s a specific location, however, also remember that -(으)로 also means ‘to’ / ‘towards’ so you would say 친구 집으로 이사했어요 (I moved towards/to my friend’s house).
As you will likely know, 에 is also a time marker, so let’s look at how these particles differ regarding time.
- 몇 시에 만날까요? - What time shall we meet (exactly what time)
- 몇 시로 만날까요? - What time shall we meet (towards what time, - more of an approximation)
The second sentence, as with the examples above, can also be used to appear less direct, so if you are asking what time a meeting is, you could choose to use 몇 시로 - but both are correct given the situation.
There are lots of nuances and uses for these two particles and it takes a bit of time to move away from solely using -에, but even just knowing the above will help you to understand the subtle difference in meaning in the above contexts!
