particle N3 uncommon casualpolitewritten

〜か〜かどちらか — either ~ or ~

〜か〜かどちらか
Builds on 〜か〜か

Meaning

Key sentence

Please decide one way or the other — whether to go or not.

Formation

Attaches toFormExample
Two nouns or clauses, each marked with か [A]か[B]か + どちらか お茶ちゃかコーヒーか、どちらか

Examples

Please choose either tea or coffee.
It's either success or failure — one or the other, nothing else.

Easily confused with

〜か〜か か〜か lays out alternatives ('whether ~ or ~'), often as an embedded question. Adding どちらか pins it to 'one of the two' — exactly one option is chosen or true. 〜か〜ないか か〜ないか poses a yes/no on a single action ('whether or not to ~'). か〜かどちらか sets two distinct options side by side and selects one.

See 〜か〜かどちらか in real sentences

Jengo shows 〜か〜かどちらか the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.

Study it in Jengo

Sources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar.

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