Unit 4: Stage 4 Task 1

 

* Notice that 우리, meaning "our," is attached to 외할아버지 in the answer: "It's my maternal grandfather." Koreans tend to use 우리 more often than 제 meaning "my" to indicate the first person singular and plural possessive. As an extreme example from contemporary spoken Korean, a woman often refers to her husband as 우리 남편 instead of 제 남편, and her son 우리 아들 instead of 제 아들. Here, 우리 외할아버지 actually means "my maternal grandfather." This feature of Korean language also seems to reflect the collectivism underlying Korean culture. In this drill, make sure to answer using 우리. "The only exception to this usage is with 동생. When you say "my younger sibling," you can say "제 동생" or "내 동생" instead of "우리 동생." Likewise, you can say "제 여동생" or "내 여동생" and "제 남동생" or "내 남동생."