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%.
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.