Offering choices with "haishi"

Revision as of 09:56, 15 August 2011 by WikiSysop (talk | contribs)

还是 (háishì) is used in Chinese to provide options in a question. This is equivalent to or in English. The basic structure is:

Option A + 还是 + Option B

You can then put this into all kinds of questions with the following structure:

Subject + Verb + Option A + 还是 + Option B

Some examples:

还是 questions
Subject Verb Option A 还是 Option B
美国人 还是 英国人
喜欢 啤酒 还是 葡萄酒
医生 还是 护士
想吃 中国菜 还是 法国菜
很大的猫 还是 很小的老虎

Please note that 还是 is for offering options in a question. It should not be used for all translations of the English word "or."