# 或者是



## yuechu

大家好！

我大学应该会读计算机或者是经济学。
Someone recently sent me this message. Is the word 是 optional here or compulsory? Does it sound better with 是 rather than without?
Thanks!


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## hx1997

Optional. It sounds almost the same with or without, but 或者是 sounds more colloquial.


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## yuechu

Thanks, hx1997!


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## Skatinginbc

What does 是 mean in 我大学应该会读计算机或者是经济学?
读计算机或者是经济学
我大学应该会(读计算机或者)是经济学 ==> 我大学应该会是经济学 does not make sense.
我大学应该会读(计算机或者)是经济学 ==> 会读是 does not make sense.


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## fyl

No idea how to explain it. But it is an idiomatic colloquial structure often heard, like 读计算机，或者就是经济学；读计算机，要不就是经济学
Maybe: "In college I will major in computer science. Or it is economics."


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## retrogradedwithwind

Strictly speaking it's wrong but very common in life.


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## hx1997

Perhaps omissions are at work: 我大学应该会(是)读计算机或者是(读)经济学.


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## brofeelgood

是缩短了吧?

我大学*读的*应该会*是*计算机或者*是*经济学。

*cross-posted with hx1997*


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## Wen24

我大学应该会读计算机或者是经济学。
我大学应该会读计算机或者经济学。

Both of them are correct sentence. But I would feel uncomfortable for the second sentence (我大学应该会读计算机或者经济学。). Because it doesn't rhyme.
“计算机” is the abbreviation of "计算机专业", "计算机学科", "计算机系", etc.
If I want to use "或者", I would say
"我大学应该会读计算机或者经济"
"我大学应该会读计算机专业或者经济学"
“我大学应该会读计算机专业或者经济专业”
“我大学应该会读计算机专业或者经济专业”

“或者” is comparing between the words ("计算机" and "经济"), so the words should in the same quality (= rhyme). "计算机" is computer, or the omission of Computer Science.  "经济学" is economics. Because "计算机" has a big meaning of "computer", using "计算机或者经济学" would be misunderstood or unclear.

"或者是" is comparing between sentences("我大学应该会读计算机" and "我大学应该会读经济学").
We don't like repeat the words in daily Chinese conversation, so we would like to omit "我大学应该会读".
"我大学应该会读计算机或者是经济学。"  and "我大学应该会读计算机，或者是我大学应该会读经济学。" have the same meaning, but "我大学应该会读计算机或者是经济学。" would be more simple.


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## Youngfun

Or maybe:
读计算机或者（想读的）是经济学


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## Wen24

Youngfun said:


> Or maybe:
> 读计算机或者（想读的）是经济学


what is the meaning of "()"?


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## Youngfun

Wen24 said:


> what is the meaning of "()"?


When discussing languages "()" always means the part that is left out in a sentence, but helps to understand the sentence... isn't it clear?


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## Wen24

Youngfun said:


> When discussing languages "()" always means the part that is left out in a sentence, but helps to understand the sentence... isn't it clear?


Yes, it is clear now.

"When discussing languages "()" *always* means the part that is left out in a sentence"
Ok, a lot of words would be left out in my old response (#9).(Crying face) I'm curious how did you understand the meaning of "()" in #9. 


BTW, "我大学应该会读计算机或者（想读的）是经济学" is a little strange for me.
"或者"，“或者是”， both of them are comparing between the same level things (words or sentence).
I think "我大学应该会读计算机"(I would choose Computer Science in university) and "想读的是经济学"（the subject I want to learn is economics） are different, they are not in the same form.

If you want to complete the whole sentence, my suggestion is
"我大学应该会读计算机或者是（读）经济学"


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## Youngfun

Wen24 said:


> Yes, it is clear now.
> 
> "When discussing languages "()" *always* means the part that is left out in a sentence"
> Ok, a lot of words would be left out in my old response (#9).(Crying face) I'm curious how did you understand the meaning of "()" in #9.


Yeah, you're right... () also mean clarification...




> BTW, "我大学应该会读计算机或者（想读的）是经济学" is a little strange for me.


Sorry, I didn't looks at the first part of the sentence, and jumped directly at the part after  或者是.
What about: 
我大学应该会读计算机或者（应该会读的）是经济学"

You're probably right that doing this I'm changing the structure of the sentence and changing the subject, but I can't help and think of two sentences like these as equivalent:
我想吃饭
我想吃的是饭


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## Wen24

Youngfun said:


> Yeah, you're right... () also mean clarification...
> 
> 
> 
> Sorry, I didn't looks at the first part of the sentence, and jumped directly at the part after  或者是.
> What about:
> 我大学应该会读计算机或者（应该会读的）是经济学"
> 
> You're probably right that doing this I'm changing the structure of the sentence and changing the subject, but I can't help and think of two sentences like these as equivalent:
> 我想吃饭
> 我想吃的是饭




"Yeah, you're right... () also mean clarification..."
 Finally, you noticed the minority. Thank you for noticing. 

"Sorry, I didn't looks at the first part of the sentence, and jumped directly at the part after "
Aha, 

"What about:
我大学应该会读计算机或者（应该会读的）是经济学"
Perfect, I don't feel any uncomfortable in this Chinese sentence.

BTW, what is the meaning of " but *I can't help and think* of two sentences like these as equivalent:"?
Especially, I can not understand the meaning of "I can't help and think", does it mean "you can not help XX(E.g people) and you can not think XX"?


About
"
我想吃饭
我想吃的是饭
"
in my opinion, they have different hiding information, if you can catch the hiding information well, you would make "a good question" (Continuing the conversation, the person who talking with you wouldn't feel uncomfortable and unreasonable on you question, and you can get the information you want).

我想吃饭 → I want to eat food.                                      Pay attention on the action (eat).      
            → If I'm talking with you. I would ask you "Ok, which kind of food do you want to eat?"

我想吃的是饭 → The food I want to eat is rice.                 Pay attention on the object (rice).
                  → I would ask you "Ok, where do you want to eat?"


BTW, how did you make the quote in different paragraph?


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## Youngfun

Wen24 said:


> BTW, what is the meaning of " *but I can't help and think*...


Sorry, typo. I meant to write "I can't help *but* think".


> 我想吃饭
> 我想吃的是饭
> "
> in my opinion, they have different hiding information, if you can catch the hiding information well, you would make "a good question" (Continuing the conversation, the person who talking with you wouldn't feel uncomfortable and unreasonable on you question, and you can get the information you want).
> 
> 我想吃饭 → I want to eat food.                                      Pay attention on the action (eat).
> → If I'm talking with you. I would ask you "Ok, which kind of food do you want to eat?"
> 
> 我想吃的是饭 → The food I want to eat is rice.                 Pay attention on the object (rice).
> → I would ask you "Ok, where do you want to eat?"


To me, depending on the context they can both mean rice or meal.
At least for a Southern Chinese, when in a home meal or in a restaurant mean, and everybody is eating various kinds of meat/seafood/vegetable dishes, but rice hasn't served yet, one could say 我要吃饭！ meaning rice.

On the other hand, if somebody gave me snacks, but I wanted to have dinner, I could say 我想吃的是饭 to mean I want to eat a proper meal (lunch or dinner), not necessarily rice.

But OK, I agree with you that it wasn't the best example.
I'll try with:
我想吃米饭
我想吃的是米饭



> BTW, how did you make the quote in different paragraph?


You have to manually add (or using copy and paste) the tags [ QUOTE ] (without spaces) and [ /QUOTE ] (without spaces). It's weird WR doesn't have a button for that.


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## Wen24

Youngfun said:


> You have to manually add (or using copy and paste) the tags [ QUOTE ] (without spaces) and [ /QUOTE ] (without spaces). It's weird WR doesn't have a button for that.


That's really cool!!! Thanks. 



Youngfun said:


> Sorry, typo. I meant to write "I can't help *but* think".[ QUOTE ] (without spaces) and [ /QUOTE ] (without spaces). It's weird WR doesn't have a button for that.


Aha, ok, I see.



Youngfun said:


> To me, depending on the context they can both mean rice or meal.
> At least for a Southern Chinese, when in a home meal or in a restaurant mean, and everybody is eating various kinds of meat/seafood/vegetable dishes, but rice hasn't served yet, one could say 我要吃饭！ meaning rice.
> 
> On the other hand, if somebody gave me snacks, but I wanted to have dinner, I could say 我想吃的是饭 to mean I want to eat a proper meal (lunch or dinner), not necessarily rice.
> 
> But OK, I agree with you that it wasn't the best example.
> I'll try with:
> 我想吃米饭
> 我想吃的是米饭[ QUOTE ] (without spaces) and [ /QUOTE ] (without spaces). It's weird WR doesn't have a button for that.



You're great! 
Yes, that's true, it depends background of dialogue. I was so lazy (I didn't explain the ambiguity of "饭", and I also didn't use other none to instead of "饭").


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