A2
還是 and 或者 — two words for “or”
Why Chinese splits “or” into a question word and a statement word, and why a 還是 question never takes 嗎.
English uses or for both offering a choice and listing possibilities. Chinese uses different words, and the split is clean: 還是 in a question, 或者 in a statement.
你喝茶還是咖啡？
Nǐ hē chá háishi kāfēi?
Tea or coffee?
茶或者咖啡都行。
Chá huòzhě kāfēi dōu xíng.
Tea or coffee, either’s fine.
The first asks the listener to pick one. The second says it does not matter, which is a statement about the world rather than a question.
你喝茶或者咖啡？
你喝茶還是咖啡？
或者 lists options without asking anyone to choose. Used with a question mark it lands as you drink tea or coffee, I suppose? rather than as an offer.
A 還是 question takes no 嗎
It is already a question — the choice is the question — so 嗎 has nothing to add, exactly as with question words.
你去還是我去？
Nǐ qù háishi wǒ qù?
Are you going, or am I?
Notice the verb repeats on both sides. Chinese does not gap the way English does — are you going or am I leaves the second verb out, and Chinese puts it back.
還是 also means “still”
Its other everyday sense, and one you will meet constantly.
他還是不懂。
Tā háishi bù dǒng.
He still doesn’t get it.
And “you’d better”
A third use, softer than it looks: 還是 before a suggestion means on reflection, this is the better option. It is one of the most useful things in spoken Chinese for making advice sound like a shared conclusion rather than an instruction.
你還是別去了。
Nǐ háishi bié qù le.
I think you’d better not go.
我們還是明天再說吧。
Wǒmen háishi míngtiān zài shuō ba.
Let’s leave it until tomorrow.
Those two are the same word doing the same thing as still — the choice you keep coming back to.