Place Nouns and 에

I learned place nouns as Korean would name it.  The use of this nouns and 에 will help communicate clearly specially when location is discussed.  Among the few place nouns i learned are:

• 안 (inside) used primarily when describing a space or location that can be loosely filled
• 속 (inside) same meaning as 인 but is used mainly for space or location which can be easily identified as filled
• 밖 (outside)
• 위 (above, on top, over)
• 밑 (below, bottom, underneath)
• 아래 (lower, down, below)
• 앞 (in front)
• 뒤 (at the back, behind)
• 근처 (within the vicinity, near)
• 옆 (next to, beside)
• 사이 (between)

Positioning of the noun is important since the above place nouns can be used to modify another noun.  I thought the language is not sensitive to such but I was wrong:

• 문 뒤에 –  would mean behind the door or located behind the door but if word order is changed to
• 뒤 문 –  it would then mean the ‘back door’ or door at the back or door behind.  뒤 is used to modify 문

 I also learned one important place noun which will be helpful when I travel to Korea, this is 편 or 쯕 which denotes direction or side (as location).  So to say the following:

• On left – 왼 편에 or 왼 쯕에
• On right – 오른 편에 or 오른 쯕에