"Is she a director or an actress?"

Translation: Вона режисер чи актриса?

[bittermostaza]

How do we know when to use або instead of чи? Are they interchangeable?

[deactivated user]

I think there's an important difference:

• чи is used to suggest two alternatives to choose from (Вона режисерка чи актриса = I want to know what is her occupation: is she a director? Or is she an actress? The difference between actress and a director is important)
• або is used to suggest two options both of which are acceptable (Вона режисерка або акторка = I want to know if she is either a director or an actor, I don't care who exactly, I just want to know if she works on movies or not).

[Carl_Ramrod]

Wow, that's really useful! I wish we had that distinction in English! It reminds me of this Simpsons joke (which is probably hard to translate into Ukrainian because of the чи/або difference):

Bart: Do you wear boxers or briefs?

Homer: [checking] Nope.