is "our" all right?

[mrgoh]

when i happen to talk to foreigner and say about the company i am with, which i am not a owner of and just working for.
In my native language, "Our company" is never misunderstood or causing confusion about who the company belongs to or is with the company.
but i haven't always been sure about this when i say in english to foreigner, especially westerner.
because i am afraid that he would be wondering whom the "our" in my words means, as i usually say "we" for calling all the people with me during the meeting.


well, i'm not sure discription of my question is understandable.

[Casiopea]

When I happen to talk to a foreigner about the company I am with, of which I am not an owner and am just working for, I use the phrase our company.

In my native language, "Our company" is never misunderstood nor causes confusion about who the company belongs to or who is with the company, but I haven't always been sure about this when I say in English to a foreigner, especially a westerner because I am afraid that s/he wonder to whom the "our" in my words refers, as I usually say "we" when referring to the people with me during the meeting.

Well, I'm not sure my description of my question is understandable.

You could use,

My company or The company I work for or the company's name.


All the best,

[mrgoh]

Thanks for the quick reply.

My writing was terrible.
I tend to be careless of usage of "a" and "the". In fact it's one of the most difficult part to learn that to me.

BTW, With your answer, is the usage of "our company" in that situation not acceptable or possibly causing confusion?

[Casiopea]

BTW, With your answer, is the usage of "our company" in that situation not acceptable or possibly causing confusion?

It's fine. :) your and our and my are possessive pronouns. If the person you're speaking with doesn't work for your company, then s/he isn't included in our. Only those people who belong to that company are included within our.

If lunch is provided for everyone at the meeting, and someone who belongs to the meeting asks, "Is this our lunch?", in this case 'our' refers to all the people at the meeting.

All the best,