Some Chinese learners confuse 还是 (háishi) with 或者 (huòzhě) as they both mean “or”. However, there is a big difference between 还是 (háishi) and 或者 (huòzhě) is in how you use them. 还是 (háishi) is usually used to ask questions such as “Do you want to drink tea or coffee?”; “Do you like Shanghai or Beijing?”, when someone asks you to make a choice among two or more options.
或者 (huòzhě) is NOT a question word and is used to make a statement like “Either tea or coffee is OK.” If it does show up in a question sentence it needs to be linked with another question word such as 吗 (ma).
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Some Chinese learners confuse 还是 (háishi) with 或者 (huòzhě) as they both mean “or”. However, there is a big difference between 还是 (háishi) and 或者 (huòzhě) is in how you use them. 还是 (háishi) is usually used to ask questions such as “Do you want to drink tea or coffee?”; “Do you like Shanghai or Beijing?”, when someone asks you to make a choice among two or more options.
或者 (huòzhě) is NOT a question word and is used to make a statement like “Either tea or coffee is OK.” If it does show up in a question sentence it needs to be linked with another question word such as 吗 (ma).
