Asking Comparison Questions With "which" and "or"

Now, let’s dive into asking comparison questions with “which” and “or”. 

Comparison Questions With “which”

We use this to ask something like: “this apple and that apple, which one is cheap?”. Pretty straight forward, so I can largely skip my normal poetic waxing.

Topic 1 and Topic 2 + nǎ measure word + adjective

A：Kāfēi hé chá, nǎge piányí？——> Coffee and tea, which one is cheap? 咖啡和茶，哪个便宜？ B：Chá bǐjiào piányí. ——> Tea is relatively cheap. 茶比较便宜。

A：Zhètiáo lánsè de kùzi hé nàtiáo hóngsè de kùzi，nǎtiáo hǎokàn. ——> This blue pair of pants and that red pair of pants, which one is good looking? 这条蓝色的裤子和那条红色的裤子，哪条好看？ B：Wǒ juéde dōu hǎokàn! Dànshì nàtiáo hóngsè de kùzi gèng hǎokàn. ——> I think they are all good. That red pair of pants is even more good looking. 我觉得都好看！但是那条红色的裤子更好看。

bǐjiào means relatively or rather. In this case, it is an adverb, so it is placed before an adjective or a verb and after the subject. We use gèng to express “even more” and it generally comes before the adjective. Often times, using gèng means adding “even more” to an existing considerable amount such as this blue pair of pants is pretty but that red one is even prettier.

Comparison Questions With “or”

There are two different “or” in Chinese, huòzhě and háishì. We use háishì in questions, and huòzhě in non-question sentences. And we will be focusing on háishì in this section.

Topic 1 + adjective + háishì (or) + Topic 2 + adjective?

Nǐde gēge gāo, háishì nǐ gāo? ——> Your older brother tall or you tall? ("(Is) your older brother or are you taller?") 你的哥哥高，还是你高？

Zhè tiáo qúnzi piányí, háishì nàtiáo qúnzi piányí? ——> This dress cheap or that dress cheap? ("(Is) this dress cheaper or is that dress cheaper?") 这条裙子便宜，还是那条裙子便宜？