In this post I will cover the Chinese words for “or” as well as the difference between 还是 (háishì) and 或者 (huòzhě).
There are several ways to say “or” in Chinese, these are:
还是 (háishì) – used in questions
或者 (huòzhě) – used in statements
The difference between 还是 (háishì) and 或者 (huòzhě) is that还是 (háishì) is used when asking a question, while 还是 (háishì) is used when making a statement.
How to use 还是 (háishì) in Chinese
还是 (háishì) is used to say “or” when asking a question: A还是B? A háishì B? A or B?
Here are some examples:
您想要茶 nín xiǎng yào chá háishì kāfēi Do you want tea or coffee?
头等舱 tóuděng cāng háishì jīngjì cāng? First class or economy class?
In the above, 头等舱 (tóuděng cāng) means “first class’ and 经济舱 (jīngjì cāng) means “economy class”, where 舱 (cāng) means “cabin”, so you could translate these as meaning “first class cabin” and “economy cabin”.
您要走着 nǐ yào zǒuzhe qù háishì chéng chē qù? Do you want to walk or take the bus?
Here 走 (走着) means “walk’ while 乘车 (乘车) means to ride on something and could, depending on the context mean to take public transport, such as the bus, or drive.
How to use 或者 (huòzhě) in Chinese
或者 (huòzhě) is used to say “or” when making a statement:
A háishì B. A or B.
或者 (huòzhě) can be colloquially abbreviated to 或 (huò).
Here are some examples
生存 shēngcún huòzhě sǐwáng Live or die
可以用信用卡、现金 kěyǐ yòng xìnyòngkǎ, xiànjīn huòzhě zhīpiào (you) can use credit card, cash or cheque (check)
In Chinese 、is an enumerated comma, used when listing things in sentences.
The words 信用卡 (xìnyòngkǎ) 现金 (xiànjīn) and 支票 (zhīpiào) mean “card”, “cash” and “cheque” respectively.
