どちら
どちら
hepburn dochira
which (formal)
Part of speech · pronoun
Pattern visualization
no decomposition available
Examples
- どちらが好きですか。Which do you prefer?
- どちら様ですか。Who is calling please?
Collocations
どちら (dochira, which polite)どっち (docchi, which casual)どこ (doko, where)どちら様 (dochira sama, who polite)電話 (denwa, phone)
Mnemonic
Dochira (どちら) is "which / where / who (polite)" — do plus -chira polite suffix. Senses: (1) which; (2) polite "where"; (3) polite "who" on phone. Casual variant docchi. Business phone chain: moshimoshi -> o-denwa arigatou gozaimasu -> dochira sama desu ka. Korean splits eoneu-jjok / eodi / nugu; Chinese splits nage / nali / shei; Japanese fuses. JLPT N5 dochira pairs with phone business cluster.
Quick check
Meaning of dochira sama desu ka?