HSK 3 · Function Words

还是 háishi “or” in Chinese

Traditional 還是

What 还是 means

  1. or
  2. still
  3. nevertheless
  4. had better
  5. still (as before)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • unexpectedly

How to say 还是

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale还hái2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own是shineutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

还是 in a sentence

  1. 你是学生还是老师？

    Nǐ shì xuésheng háishi lǎoshī?

    Are you a student or a teacher?

    Sentence #2192505 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 尽管很忙，她还是来送我了。

    Jǐnguǎn hěn máng, tā háishi lái sòng wǒ le.

    Even though she was busy, she still came to see me off.

    Sentence #335272 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 还是不告诉他好。

    Háishi bú gàosu tā hǎo.

    It’s better not to tell him.

    Sentence #1404410 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 还是 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 还 (hái) with each of its parts in a different colour
还háistill
  • 不no · bù
  • 辶walking form of 辵 · chuò

Memory aidWalk 辶 back again: to return (huán). Read hái, it means “still”.

The character 是 (shì) with each of its parts in a different colour
是shìto belight in 还是
  • 日sun · rì
  • 疋roll of cloth · pǐ

How to write 还是

还 7 strokes · 是 9 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

还是 (háishi) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 还是 (háishi). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 还是

Words with 还

还hái · still讨价还价tǎojiàhuánjià · to bargain归还guīhuán · to return (something)还原huányuán · to restore偿还chánghuán · to repay

Words with 是

是shì · to be但是dànshì · but总是zǒngshì · always只是zhǐshì · only可是kěshì · but是否shìfǒu · whether (or not)要是yàoshi · if于是yúshì · thereupon就是jiùshì · exactly是非shìfēi · right and wrong

More words: Particles & Connectors

地dì · earth多么duōme · how跟gēn · to follow关于guānyú · about还huán · to return或者huòzhě · or然后ránhòu · then如果rúguǒ · if

FAQs

还是 (háishi) means “or” or “still”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it háishi: hái with a 2nd tone, then shi with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 还是 is written 還是. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type haishi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 还是 from the suggestions. Typing haishi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
还是 is an HSK 3 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.