Let’s take a look at a sentence like this:

친구한테 전화했어요? (친구 = friend. 한테 = to. 전화했어요 = past tense of 전화하다, or “to make a phone call”).

In English, this would mean, “Did you call your friend?”

The part that I want to focus on today is 한테. Here, 한테 means “to” but not in the sense of direction, but in the sense of action or activity.

Now let’s take a look at a sentence like this, “오늘 할아버님께 전화했어요?”

(오늘 = today. 할아버님 = grandfather. 께 = to. 전화했어요 = past tense of 전화하다 or “To make a telephone call”)

In English, this would mean, “Did you call your grandfather today?”

Notice that instead of 한테, 께 was used instead. This is because 께 is used for individuals who you want to show respect towards. Both 한테 and 께 is used when you are doing something to someone (in this case calling the person on the telephone), but depending on who the person is, you’ll use either 한테 or 께.

Now let’s look at a sentence like this, “친구한테서 선물을 받았어요.”

(친구 = friend. 한테서 = from. 선물 = gift. 을 = object marking particle. 받았어요 = past tense of 받다 or “to receive”)

In English, this would mean, “I received a gift from a friend.”

The particular word I want to focus on is 한테서. 한테서 indicates the origin or source of the action. In this case, the friend was the origin of the action, which happens to be gift giving.

In the same vein, take a look at this example, “선생님께서 선물을 받았어요.”

(선생님 = teacher. 께서 = from. 선물 = gift. 을 = object marking particle. 받았어요 = past tense of 받다)

In English, this would mean, “I received a gift from my teacher.”

Like 한테서, 께서 indicates from who the action started. However, 께서 is used for those who need to be shown extra respect. Just remember that 한테/께 is to whom the action is being done to (to my grandmother, to my sister,etc) and 한테서/께서 is from who the action came from (from my mom, from my brother).