From what I've understood, when I talk about things that are not entirely mine I have to use the term 우리. In formal situations in which I'd have to use the ㅂ니다/습니다 form do I have to use 저희 instead?
2 Answers
Yes. “우리,” be it “our” or “my,” always becomes “저희” in formal situations.
'우리' and '저희' means totally same. But the difference is coming from whether other party is higher than our.
If you're saying to senior/older people or formal situation you should use '저희'. ex) 저희는 한국사람입니다. - We are Korean.
You are same qualification(like friends) or older than other party, you should use '우리'. ex) 우리(나라)는 미국과 동맹국가입니다. - Our Country is an ally with the United States.
This usage is one of the many things that is wrong in Korea. When you confuse in grammar, You can simply use '저희' in many situations.
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2I'm not sure if my question was clear, I'm going to ask it in another way since I think that you didn't really answer my question. I already knew that 저희 was used in more formal situations than 우리 but my question asked if this applied when 우리 has the meaning of "my" as well. For example in an informal situation I would say "우리 선생님은 교실 안에 있어" meaning "my teacher is in the classroom". But if I had to say this same sentence in a formal situation would I hace to say "저희 선생님은 교실 안에 있습니다"? (Ignore the fact that I didn't put proper honirifics in the two sentences, I don't know them well) Commented Jul 25, 2021 at 9:07
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