Particles 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 or direction of an action.

から is the same general "from" you see in English, even when it is abstract.

誰かが外から俺の部屋へノックをした。
Someone knocked on my door from outside.

The English translation doesn't even have any marking all the nouns. Particles make things easier, at least for a language learner.

The subject can be dropped in Japanese if it's understood or not important. A lot of example sentences will have a lack of a clear pronoun, so our translations will just add a random one for the sake of making them readable. Remember that just because an example translation may say “he” instead of “she” it doesn’t mean that it is clear in Japanese.

へ translates well as "to" or "toward" in most situations, including abstract ones. In the previous example it also works as "on". Translations can be fairly loose.

東京へ行く
Go towards Tokyo / Headed for Tokyo

In many sentences, へ and に can be interchangeable with very minimal difference in meaning. へ can sometimes sound a bit more formal or literary.

に can mark a location of existence or target of direction. The latter use overlaps with へ a little, but へ cares more about motion and “towardsness”, and に cares more about the end objective. It can also mark a point in time when an action takes place.

東京に暮らす
To live in Tokyo (location of existence)

学校に来る
Come to school. (target of direction)

朝の５時に起きた
I woke up at 5 in the morning. (point in time)

Be aware that these are all loose rules. In reality, the kind of particle that is the most appropriate to use depends on the specific verb used in the sentence. General rules or explanations can help you remember these situations, but the only real way to know for sure is through experience. You’ll have to remember which verb goes with which particle as it often will feel rather arbitrary.

に also has many other uses that don't mark location, direction, or time. It can act as an indirect object or target of an action. An indirect object is something relevant to or affected by a verb, but not part of the verb's core meaning

研究者になる
To become a researcher.

彼に手紙を渡した
I gave him the letter.

Sometimes に can also replace direct objects in verbs that are considered transitive in English, but not in Japanese.

電車に乗る
To ride the train

All the particles in this lesson can be used in many other ways too, you should learn them as you come across them as we won't list all of them.

This is a good time to take notice that particles can attach to phrases as well, not just words. This applies to every particle we've learned so far.

私の家から来る   
It comes from my house

Here から attaches to 私の家 which can be considered a single phrase (“my house”).