Wanyu · 万语 Español

HSK 6 Connectors & compound sentences

或 … 或 …

Either… or… (literary 或…或…)

Structure 或 + option A,或 + option B(…)

或…或… (huò… huò…) lists several alternatives that coexist or are distributed among the members of a group, in a refined tone: "some… others…", "either… or…". 众人或站或坐,神情各异 = "the crowd, some standing, some sitting, wore various expressions". It is the literary variant of 有的…有的… (HSK 3) and appears mainly in formal prose, essays or classical-flavored description. It typically chains short, parallel items (或大或小, 或多或少) and retains the flavor of Classical Chinese, where 或 meant "someone / some".

Examples

  • 众zhòng人rén或huò站zhàn或huò坐zuò,神shén情qíng各gè异yì。

    The crowd, some standing, some sitting, wore different expressions.

  • 这zhè些xiē建jiàn议yì或huò可kě行xíng,或huò不bù切qiè实shí际jì,需xū逐zhú一yī斟zhēn酌zhuó。

    These proposals, some feasible, some unrealistic, must be weighed one by one.

  • 游yóu人rén或huò在zài湖hú边biān漫màn步bù,或huò于yú亭tíng中zhōng小xiǎo憩qì。

    The visitors would either stroll by the lake or rest a while in the pavilion.

Levels are indicative: they follow the standard Chinese Grammar Wiki (AllSet Learning) progression, not an official HSK 3.0 mapping. We never assign levels by eye.

This point and the other 370, with audio on every example, inside Wanyu.

Download on the App Store