Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "或者" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 或者 in Chinese?

或者 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /xwo˥˩.ʈʂɤ˨˩˦/. It means “or.” hwor-JUH: a hard-falling first syllable with a scraped h, then a low sagging second with the tongue curled back.

hwor-JUH: a hard-falling first syllable with a scraped h, then a low sagging second with the tongue curled back.

或者 /xwo˥˩.ʈʂɤ˨˩˦/

huòzhě

Fall then dip, with no rule inside. On the right edge, though, zhě is a dipping tone and converts whenever another one follows, which happens often since 或者 introduces alternatives that may begin with any tone. Checking the syllable after the conjunction is a habit worth building.

Listen: 或者

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Sound it out

huò Real friction at the soft palate, immediate lip-rounding, then a glide from "oo" out toward "aw". The pitch dives from high to low across the movement.

zhě Curled tip, hollow release, no breath — onto the back unrounded e with the lips flat. The voice sinks to the floor, so the word ends at its lowest point.

Hear it in a sentence

我们可以看电影或者散步。

Wǒmen kěyǐ kàn diànyǐng huòzhě sànbù.

We can watch a movie or take a walk.

Listen: 我们可以看电影或者散步。

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我们可以看电影或者散步。 contains the kěyǐ conversion — kě rises before the dipping yǐ — and then a long run of falling tones: kàn, diàn, huò, sàn, bù. Wǒ is protected by the toneless men and keeps its dip. Five separate descents in one sentence means five separate resets to the top, which is where the rhythm usually collapses.

Where English speakers slip

The h drops out before the rounded glide, leaving "wor". Add friction at the back of the mouth. The retroflex in zhě flattens into an English j, and the vowel fronts to "eh" instead of retracting. And the long falling run in the example sentence gets levelled into a single slide, which makes a sentence about choices sound like a sentence about resignation.