Lesson 5: Moving things with に, へ, and から
These particles mainly deal with location. から indicates the starting point of an action, and へ and に indicate the ending point of an action.
から is the same general "from" you see in english, even when it's abstract.
学校から私に家へ手紙を送った
[He] sent me home a letter from school.
The english translation doesn't even have any marking on three of the nouns. Particles make things easier, at least for a language learner.
The subject was dropped in the japanese version of this sentence. The subject can be dropped in japanese if it's understood. This is just like how english uses pronouns. If you don't drop something that's obvious enough to drop, it emphasizes it.
へ translates well as "to" or "toward" in most situations, including abstract ones.
東京へ行く Going to Tokyo / Headed for Tokyo
に can mark an indirect object or a location.
An indirect object is something relevant to or affected by a verb, but not part of the verb's core meaning. This overlaps with へ a little, but へ cares more about motion and towardsness, and に cares more about the noun itself.
学校に来た Came to school.
Location is easy.
学校に暮らす I live in school.
The idea of "indirect object" used by に can show up in places that would look like direct objects in english.
研究者になる Becomes a researcher.
ここに来た He came here.
In this way, に becomes a general "first option" for things that look like direct objects but cannot take を for the equivalent verb in japanese. There are other particles that also do this job, which we will cover later. For certain meanings, you can only use a given particle, not an arbitrary one.
These particles can be used in other ways, but we're not ready for that yet.
This is a good time to remember that particles attach to phrases, not words. This applies to every particle we've learned so far.
私の家から来た Came from my house