Self Intro
I’m from China and I teach Chinese online.
A question from a student
What is the meaning of “还是” in the following sentence:
你还是喝杯牛奶吧。
My answer
你还是喝杯牛奶吧。
Why not have a glass of milk instead.
You can kind of think of “还是V吧” as “Why not do A?” You use “还是V吧” when you want to advise someone to do V.
A closer look
From HSK 3, we’ve learned that 还是 can be used in “or” questions like “Do you want this OR that?”
你想喝咖啡还是想喝茶？
Do you want to drink coffee or [do you] want to drink tea?
So what follows 还是 is an alternative, an option, a choice. So similarly:
你还是喝杯牛奶吧。
Why not have a glass of milk instead.
“还是“ is followed by the suggested choice: ”喝杯牛奶“.
And with the particle “吧”, which expresses request, “还是喝杯牛奶吧” will mean “Why not drink a glass of milk?”
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from r/ChineseLanguage: a community for people who are studying, teaching, or interested in Chinese! https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/bbsm1f/the_meaning_of_还是_in_你还是喝杯牛奶吧/ --------
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