Chinese word dictionary

要么

yàome · or; either one or the other

Practice word

Word information

Simplified要么

Traditional要麼

Pinyinyàome

Part of speech连

HSK 3.06

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

要yào

essential, necessary; to ask for; to coerce; to demand

么me

interrogative particle

How to learn 要么

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

不要búyào

don't!; must not

什么shénme

what?; something; anything

要yào

to want; to need; to ask for; will; shall; about to; need to; should; if (same as 要是[yao4 shi5]); (bound form) important

怎么zěnme

how?; what?; why?; variant of 怎麼|怎么[zen3 me5]

怎么样zěnmeyàng

how?; how about?; how was it?; how are things?

快要kuàiyào

nearly at the point of (doing sth); about to (do sth)