或(あ)るいはOr, Possibly, Maybe, Perhaps, Or possibly

最近の返信 (合計14件)

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  simias

  Thank you. I think what confuses me is that the point in general as explained in the bunpro lesson seems to carry some element of uncertainty, but there’s isn’t any here, right?

  So basically in this case it effectively means と?

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  nekoyama

  It means A or B, like AかB.

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  casual

  晴れあるいは曇りであれば、お祭りに行きましょう。

  Am I right in thinking that this means:

  If it’s sunny, or even if it’s cloudy, let’s go to the festival. (but it’s better if it’s sunny, and we make no promises about other cases such as rain).

  The impression I’m getting from the English translation is somewhat different, which is throwing me off a little bit:

  Whether it is sunny or cloudy, let’s go to the festival. (it doesn’t matter which, we go there absolutely in any case).

  I’ve re-read the linked 類語例解辞典 snippet about あるいは, and I don’t 100% understand it, but it seems that it typically puts more emphasis on option A as opposed to B.