Meaning of 或者
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- or
- possibly; maybe; perhaps
How to use 或者
或者 links two or more choices in statements, plans and suggestions. It sits between the options, which can be nouns, verbs or whole clauses. Example: 你可以喝茶或者咖啡。(Nǐ kěyǐ hē chá huòzhě kāfēi.) You can drink tea or coffee.
或 (huò) already means "or" or "perhaps" on its own, as you can see in 或许 (huòxǔ, perhaps). Add 者 (zhě), the same ending you see in 作者 (zuòzhě, author) and 读者 (dúzhě, reader), and you get 或者, the everyday word for "or".
Common mistake: Learners often use 或者 in questions, but a question that asks someone to choose needs 还是 (háishi). Say 你喝茶还是咖啡？(Nǐ hē chá háishi kāfēi?), not 你喝茶或者咖啡？.
或者 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
或 huò · maybe · 8 strokes
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者 zhě · one who ... · 8 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 或者.
Questions about 或者
What does 或者 mean?
或者 (huòzhě) means "or; possibly; maybe; perhaps" and is used as a conjunction.
How do you write 或者?
或者 is made of 2 characters: 或 (8 strokes), 者 (8 strokes). That is 16 strokes in total.
Is 或者 an HSK word?
Yes. 或者 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 或者 and 或是?
They mean the same thing and can usually swap. 或是 (huòshì) sounds a bit more written or formal. 或者 is more common in everyday speech.
Can 或者 mean "maybe" at the start of a sentence?
Yes. In writing it can mean "perhaps", as in 或者他已经走了。(Huòzhě tā yǐjīng zǒu le.) Perhaps he has already left. In speech, people more often say 也许 (yěxǔ) or 可能 (kěnéng) for this meaning.