my-korean1-2nd-ed

340
Possessive Pronouns
UNIT 10 전공이 뭐예요?
When we want to refer to the fact that something belongs to somebody in
English, we use possessive pronouns such as ‘my’, ‘our’, ‘your’, ‘his’, ‘her’,
and ‘their’. How you use the corresponding Korean words depends on styles
of speech. This is illustrated in the following table:
my our your his/her whose
Casual 내 우리 네 그 사람 누구
Humble 제 저희 * * *
Honorific * * * 그 분 어느 분
Note that 너 or 니 is used instead of ‘네’ (your) in speaking because the
pronunciation of ‘네’ (your) is very similar to ‘내’ (my).
Examples:
(1) A: 이거 누구 책이에요? Whose book is this?
B: 제 책이에요. It’s my book.
(2) A: 이거 어느 분 지갑이에요? Whose purse is this?
B: 제 거예요. It’s mine.
However, in Korean you don’t often use the 2nd or 3rd person possessive
pronouns. In such cases you just link the item and person’s name:
(3) 선영 : 이거 영진 씨 책이에요? Young-jin, Is this your book?
영진 : 아니요. 우리 아버지 거예요. No, it’s my father’s.