Grammar
N에서 N(으)로
Meaning
BeginnerN eseo N (eu)ro
Binds the before and the after of a change into one phrase. The figure or state a thing started from takes 에서, the one it ended at takes (으)로, and the verb that follows names the direction of the move: 41.1%에서 45.2%로 높아졌습니다. What the frame hands you is the pair of endpoints, not the distance between them — the gap has to be worked out by subtraction, and Korean writing routinely leaves that to the reader. Anything with a before and an after fits the slots: amounts, percentages, ranks, dates, places, names and job titles (2급에서 1급으로, 9월에서 10월로, 장관에서 총리로).
Form
에서 attaches straight to the starting noun, with no space and no change for a final consonant. The ending noun takes 로 after a vowel or ㄹ and 으로 after any other consonant — the same rule as the plain particle -(으)로 — so 45.2%로 (read 퍼센트로, vowel-final) but 3급으로. Both parts are particles, and it is the second one the verb reads: 늘다, 줄다, 오르다, 떨어지다, 높아지다, 바뀌다, 확대되다 all take this frame. Headlines and captions often drop the verb and leave the two marked nouns to carry the sentence (기준금리 2.5%에서 2.75%로). The 에서 half can also be left out when the starting point is already known, leaving a bare N(으)로 with the same resulting-state sense.
Examples
상용직 비율이 41.1%에서 45.2%로 높아졌습니다.
The share in permanent employment rose from 41.1% to 45.2%.
수업이 오전에서 오후로 바뀌었습니다.
The class was moved from the morning to the afternoon.
버스 요금이 1500원에서 1700원으로 올랐습니다.
The bus fare went up from 1,500 won to 1,700 won.
Common mistakes & nuance
Two things decide whether you have read the sentence right. The first is 까지 against (으)로. 32도에서 37도까지 is a range and says the figure sits somewhere inside it; 32도에서 37도로 is a change and says it started at one and finished at the other. The first halves are identical and the claims are unrelated — the only signal is the particle on the second number. The second is that this frame reports endpoints and never the gap: 41.1%에서 45.2%로 높아졌다 supplies no rate of change at all, and a reader who wants one has to compute it. Watch which kind of arithmetic that is, too — the same move is 4.1 percentage points and about a 10 percent rise, and Korean statistics writing uses both units in the same paragraph.
Similar grammar
- N에서 N까지
The same 에서 with a different partner, and the difference is the whole reading. N에서 N까지 draws a range and leaves the figure somewhere inside it (32도에서 37도까지 올라갑니다 — highs anywhere between 32 and 37). N에서 N(으)로 draws a movement and puts the figure at the far end (32도에서 37도로 올랐습니다 — it was 32 and now it is 37). Because the two share their first half, a reader who skims past the particle on the second number gets a range where a change was reported, or the reverse.
- -(으)로
The (으)로 half on its own. The particle's general job is to mark a means, a direction or a resulting state, and this frame uses only the last of those, then adds 에서 in front to name where the state came from. That is why a sentence can drop 에서 and keep working — 1급으로 승진했다 still says what he became — while dropping (으)로 breaks the frame outright.
- N보다 N 줄다
Two ways to report the same movement, and they carry different halves of it. N에서 N(으)로 gives both endpoints and leaves the size of the change to the reader; N보다 N 줄다 gives the baseline and the size of the change and leaves the new total unsaid. A statistics paragraph often runs both, one after the other, which is the point at which it pays to know which number in front of you is a level and which is a difference.