First Person Plural: 우리 vs 저희 — and 'our' Meaning 'my'

Korean has two words for "we": the plain 우리 and the humble 저희. Choosing between them works exactly like choosing between 나 and 저 for "I" — it's about lowering yourself before your listener, not about who is included in the group. But 우리 hides a second surprise that has no parallel in English at all: Koreans constantly use it where English says my. 우리 엄마 is "my mom", 우리 집 is "my house", 우리 학교 is "my school". Learning to feel why — and when to humble 우리 down to 저희, and when you absolutely must not — is the whole of this page.

우리 — we, us, our

우리 is the everyday first-person plural: "we", "us", and (before a noun) "our". It's the unmarked, neutral form you use among peers, friends, and family.

Because Korean drops plural marking freely, 우리 already means the plural group — you don't need 우리들 in most cases, though it exists for emphasis.

The feature with no English equivalent: 우리 = "my"

Here is the fact that startles every English speaker. Korean routinely uses 우리 ("our") in exactly the spots where English demands my:

A single, unmarried speaker with one mother still says 우리 엄마, not 내 엄마. Why? Because 우리 here doesn't claim joint ownership — it expresses shared, in-group belonging. Your mother, your home, your school, your country, your company are all things you belong to along with others, and Korean marks that collective membership rather than individual possession. Saying ×내 엄마 ("MY mom", exclusively mine) sounds strangely possessive, almost as if you were staking a private claim on a person who is obviously shared with siblings and family.

This extends to the whole in-group vocabulary: 우리 회사 (my company), 우리 동네 (my neighborhood), 우리 팀 (my team), 우리 남편/아내 (my husband/wife). The English "my" hides the collective sense that Korean makes explicit.

저희 — the humble "we / our"

저희 is the humble counterpart of 우리. You use it to lower your own group before someone senior or outside it — a customer, a client, an elder, an audience. It's the plural of the humble "I", 저, and it follows the identical logic: shrinking yourself to show deference to the listener.

Crucially, 저희 humbles the speaker's side, so it's for use toward people outside your group. Among your own friends or family, where there's no one to defer to, you stay with 우리. A staff member says 저희 매장 ("our store") to a customer, but 우리 매장 to a coworker.

The one word you must NOT humble: 우리나라

There's a single, fixed exception that overrides the whole humbling rule. "My/our country" is 우리나라, written as one solid word — and you do not humble it to ×저희 나라. The reasoning is cultural: you can lower your company or your family before an individual, but you don't lower your entire nation to defer to one listener. 우리나라 is frozen as a unit and always stays 우리.

Note the spacing: 우리나라 is one word, whereas 우리 집 and 우리 엄마 keep a space. This solid spelling is the visible sign that it's a fixed lexical item.

울 — the colloquial squeeze

In very casual, affectionate speech, 우리 contracts to 울 before a noun — 울 엄마, 울 오빠, 울 집. It's warm and childlike, common in family talk and in cutesy registers, but out of place in anything formal or written.

How this differs from English

Two things have no English parallel. First, English "my" simply doesn't distinguish private possession from group belonging — Korean does, and defaults to the group reading (우리) for family, home, and institutions. Second, English "we/our" carries no humility dimension at all, while Korean splits it into plain 우리 and humble 저희 depending on your listener. An English speaker translating word-for-word makes two opposite errors at once: rendering 우리 엄마 as the odd "our mom" when a lone speaker means "my mom", and reaching for 저희 나라 by over-applying the humble form. Learn to feel 우리 as "the group I belong to" and 저희 as "that group, lowered before you", and both problems dissolve.

Common Mistakes

1. Humbling "country" to ×저희 나라. 우리나라 is a fixed word and never takes the humble form.

• ✗ 저희 나라는 사계절이 있어요.
• ✓ 우리나라는 사계절이 있어요. — urinaraneun sagyejeori isseoyo — "My country has four seasons."

2. Translating 우리 엄마 literally as "our mom" when a single speaker means "my mom". The English default should be "my", not "our".

• ✗ (as a lone child, in English) "This is a photo of our mom." for 우리 엄마 사진
• ✓ 우리 엄마 사진이에요. — uri eomma sajin-ieyo — "It's a photo of my mom."

3. Using 내/제 where in-group 우리 is natural. 내 집, 내 학교 narrow to strictly personal possession and sound oddly exclusive for "my home / my school".

• ✗ 내 집에 놀러 와. (sounds like "the house I personally own")
• ✓ 우리 집에 놀러 와. — uri jibe nolleo wa — "Come over to my place."

4. Using plain 우리 회사 to a client where 저희 is expected. It isn't ungrammatical, but skipping the humble form to an outsider sounds less polished.

• ✗ (to a client) 우리 회사가 만든 제품이에요.
• ✓ 저희 회사가 만든 제품이에요. — jeohui hoesaga mandeun jepum-ieyo — "It's a product our company made." (humble)

Key Takeaways

• 우리 = plain "we / us / our"; 저희 = its humble version, lowering your group before a superior or outsider — the same deference logic as 저 vs 나 for "I".
• Korean uses 우리 where English says my: 우리 엄마, 우리 집, 우리 학교, 우리 회사 — it marks in-group belonging, not joint ownership. ×내 엄마 sounds oddly possessive.
• Use 저희 toward customers, elders, and outsiders; stay with 우리 among peers and inside your own circle.
• 우리나라 ("my/our country") is written solid and is never humbled to ×저희 나라 — you don't lower your whole nation.
• 울 (울 엄마) is the casual, affectionate contraction of 우리.