Grammar Bits › Joining two ideas › A OR B

A OR B

A OR B ? (IN QUESTIONS)
Option A + Verb / Aux ། Option B + Verb / Aux
No word for “or” : the same verb or auxiliary is said again after each option
  • Giving two options to choose from is automatically a question : there is no word for “or”, you just say the verb or auxiliary again after each option.
  • In the future, the short question ending ག་ is used after each option (instead of གས། ); it could be replaced by གི་ཡིན། or གི་ཡིན་པས། if the person answering is part of the group.
  • With དགོས། (“to want” + a noun) there is no auxiliary : དགོས། is simply repeated after each option.
  • You can also add ཡང་ན་ before the second option : ཁྱེད་རང་ཆབ་མཆོད་ག །ཡང་ན་གསོལ་ཇ་མཆོད་ག : Are you going to have water or tea? (H) (see the card ཡང་ན་).
Do you want … or …?
ཁྱེད་རང་གསོལ་ཇ་མངར་མོ་མཆོད་ག །བོད་ཇ་མཆོད་ག Are you going to have sweet tea? Or are you going to have Tibetan tea?
(Sweet tea, will you have? Tibetan tea, will you have?)
བོད་ཇ་མཆོད་ག །ཇ་མངར་མོ་མཆོད་ག Would you like Tibetan or sweet tea? (H)
(Tibetan tea, will you have? Sweet tea, will you have?)
ཁྱེད་རང་ལ་བོད་ཇ་དགོས། ཇ་མངར་མོ་དགོས། Would you like to have Tibetan tea or sweet tea?
(To you, Tibetan tea is wanted? Sweet tea is wanted?)
ཁྱེད་རང་ལ་ཚོན་མདོག་དཀར་པོ་དགོས། སྔོན་པོ་དགོས། Do you want the color white or blue?
(To you, the color white is wanted? Blue is wanted?)
Where? Which way? Which one?
ཁྱེད་རང་ནང་ལ་བཞུགས་ག །ཕྱི་ལོགས་ལ་བཞུགས་ག Are you going to sit inside? Or are you going to sit outside?
(Inside, will you sit? Outside, will you sit?)
འདི་ནས་ལྷ་ས་ལ་བལ་ཡུལ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ཕེབས་ཀྱི་ཡིན། པེ་ཅིན་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ཕེབས་ཀྱི་ཡིན། From here to Lhasa, will you go via Nepal or via Beijing? (H)
(From here to Lhasa, via Nepal, will you go? Via Beijing, will you go?)
ངའི་དེབ་ག་གི་རེད། དཀར་པོ་དེ་རེད་པས་དམར་པོ་དེ་རེད། Which one is my book? The white or the red one?
(My book, which one is it? The white one, is it? The red one, is it?)