Grammar Info

N4 Lesson 9: 6/16

と～と、どちらが Between ~ which one

Structure

Noun (A) + と + Noun (B) + （と） + どちら(1) + が
Verb1 + こと(2) + と + Verb2 + こと(2) + （と） + どちら(1) + が

(1) どちらのほう、どっち、どっちのほう
(2) の

Details

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    Standard

About と～と、どちらが

と～と、どちらが is an expression in Japanese that is made from the following parts:

と - The particle (x2) in its meaning of 'and'.

どちら - The polite speech form of 誰(だれ) 'who', and a slightly newer form of どっち that basically means 'which'.

が - The case marking particle.

This structure is used when the speaker is asking a question about whether someone will choose (A) or (B). It is only used when there are no more than two possible choices.

As can be seen above, verbs may be used as part of this structure if they are nominalized with こと, or の. Additionally, the polite form does not specifically need to be used, and どっち may be used instead.

The second と itself is quite often omitted, as どちら (or どっち) implies that both (A) and (B) are part of the same structure.

Fun Fact

As どちら is the polite speech form of 誰(だれ), it is also frequently used as a polite way to ask questions about unknown people.

Caution

どちらのほう (or どっちのほう) may also be used, but this does not really change the overall nuance. It merely puts slightly more emphasis on the 'direction' of the choice. This is similar to expressions like 'which one are you leaning towards?' in English.

Related

Examples

--:--

    コーヒーとお茶(ちゃ)とどちらがほしいですか。

    Between coffee and tea, which do you want?

    スポーツすることと、ゲームすること、どちらが上手(じょうず)ですか。

    Between playing sports and playing video games, which are you better at?

    ひらがなとカタカナとどちらが覚(おぼ)えにくいですか。

    Between hiragana and katakana, which one is more difficult to remember?

    エベレストとＫ(ケー)２(ツー)とどちらが高(たか)い？

    Between Everest and K2, which one is taller?

    電車(でんしゃ)で行(い)くのと車(くるま)で行(い)くのとどちらが早(はや)いんですか。

    Between going by train and going by car, which one is faster?

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と～と、どちらが – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (9 in total)

  • Pushindawood

    Pushindawood

    between ~ which one

    Structure

    • Noun1 + と + Noun2 + (と) + どちら・が
    • Verb1 + の/こと + と + Verb2 + の/こと + (と) + どちら・が

    Second と can be omitted or swapped with a comma

    View on Bunpro

  • SuperLuxDeluxe

    SuperLuxDeluxe

    Forgive me if I’m wrong, but can’t どっち also be used instead of どちら, especially in speech? It seems as though it is marked wrong currently.

  • mrnoone

    mrnoone

    Hey

    You are right!
    It should have been accepted, but I have noticed that there were few examples where どっち weren’t added as alternative answer.
    It should be working now

    Sorry for the inconvenience!

  • Johnathan-Weir

    Johnathan-Weir

    In the video series from Japanese from Zero, George uses a similar construction except using か like so:

    AかBどちらが

    I assume this is just another way of phrasing it?

  • mrnoone

    mrnoone

    @Johnathan-Weir

    Hey and again, sorry for the slow answer (I will try my best to answer questions faster from now on!)

    Yes, you are right!
    This is another way of phrasing the same thing.

    All below are correct alternatives:
    サスケとナルトとどちら（のほう）が強い？
    サスケとナルトとではどちら（のほう）が強い？
    サスケとナルトではどちら（のほう）が強い？
    サスケかナルトかどちら（のほう）が強い？
    サスケかナルトどちら（のほう）が強い？
    サスケとナルトのどちら（のほう）が強い？

    If you want t...

  • deltacat3

    deltacat3

    In this sentence…

    に階立てのマンションと普通の家とどちらが住んでみたい？
    Which one would you rather live in, between a two-story apartment and a house?

    I noticed that 立て, being affixed to 二階, changes the counter from ordinal to a cardinal number. Can this be done with other counters? Whats occurring here?

  • Johnathan-Weir

    Johnathan-Weir

    Seems like that should be provided as alternate option

  • modboy

    modboy

    Does を ‘block’ the が here or is something else going on?

    犯人（はんにん）は逃（に）げるのと、警察（けいさつ）に行（い）くのとどちらを選（えら）ぶでしょう。

  • gyroninja

    gyroninja

    There is no “blocking” going on. You are just using どちら with the を particle instead of the が particle.

    With 選ぶ, が marks who is making the choice and を marks what is being chosen.

    Edit: This might not be the entire story though. Take for example this example sentence from bunpro:

    二階（にかい）建（だ）てのマンションと 普通（ふつう）の家（いえ）とどちらが 住（す）んでみたい？

    Normally, に marks where you are living and が marks who is the one living. In this example it is using が with a location. Searching twitter どちらに住む is much more common than どちらが住む for choosing between two locations. Maybe this is just a case of どちらが being so common that people accidentally use it like this and common accidents eventually become standard use.

  • steffuld

    steffuld

    It looks like there’s a mistake in the Structure block? There should not be (1) next to こと.
    I think it meant to say that you can nominalize options expressed by verbs using both こと and の. And instead of どちら, どちらのほう, どっち, どっちのほう can be used.

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