Beginners - do not confuse these!

[zh-laoshi]

Useful information for the beginner (and maybe advanced) learners of Chinese. I got this from http://www.sinologic.com/language.html:

Many advanced students of Mandarin are still making fundamental mistakes after they have studied the language for many years and have pretty much mastered the language otherwise.

First of all, every student learns in his/her first few lessons that in Chinese, 还是(or) is usually used only in questions where several alternatives are given, whereas 或者(or) is used in statements; and that the two of them are never exchangeable. For example:

"你是北京人还是上海人吗?" (Are you from Beijing or Shanghai?)

"我想明天去看电影，或者星期五在去"(I want to see the movie tomorrow, or maybe wait until Friday.)"

We find lots of people, including American-born Chinese kids, still making this mistake even after years of practice. One example is "Paul" or Fang Baoluo, a popular American movie critic who hosts his movie review segment on Chinese Television Network. Paul speaks amazingly fluent (albeit "wrong-toned") Chinese, but on his show, he still uses 还是 to join long clauses frequently.

Another confusing group of extremely common words is: 好的, 好吧, 好了, which all have roughly the same meaning - "okay", but with entirely different connotations.

You might have seen the Chinese use them all the time in real life, and feel compelled to imitate the way they say them - it seems so cool, so easy! Well, you might want to think twice before opening your mouth next time. Here's a comparison of the three:

好的: okay (implying: No problem! Okidoki! It's a deal! Will do.)

好吧: okay (implying: Well, alright. If that's what you want. Note: the speaker is showing reluctance.)

好了: okay (implying: That's enough. Stop right there. Note: so this can be rude if used improperly.)

So, get them straight. The next time your Chinese friend proposes, "我们去吃饭，好不好？" (Shall we go eat?), don't answer with "好吧." (unless you're reluctant to go) or "好了." (unless you want to say, "Shut up. Let's get going.").

HOT TIP: If in doubt, just say "好", which is neutral and will do for all situations.

[nipponman]

Thanks for the site, I think I've read it before.

[fenlan]

Are there any occasions when 或是 is right? One Chinese person did tell me so.

[盤古]

Are there any occasions when 或是 is right? One Chinese person did tell me so.

Not when you're asking a question.

I believe you can simply think of 还是 haishi as simply "or" and 或者 huozhe as "either ... or ...".

There are times a sentence may SOUND like a question but the speaker isn't really asking a question but simply telling the other person to choose from the options he or she's given.

你四点下班，或者五点下班。 (You get off work at either 4 or 5.)

[神様の涙]

maybe your Chinese friend said “或许是”.that means "maybe it is right".