How to say "if a is happening or b is happening" using たら?

Question

If I wanted to say:

If I am cooking or washing clothes, please help.

料理をしている[or]洗濯していたら、手伝ってください。

I know sometimes か is used to mean "or", but wouldn't that be confused with the question of whether I'm cooking?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

If you want to keep the structure, you could use したり～している as in

「料理をしたり、洗濯をしたり（、掃除をしたり）しているところを見かけたら手伝ってください」

“If you see (the person) cooking or washing clothes (or cleaning), please help (the person).”

or if you don’t care about the structure, you could maybe use

「料理とか洗濯とか（掃除とか）手伝ってくださいよ」

“You really should help with cooking and washing the clothes (and cleaning / other things).”

or

「料理や洗濯とか手伝ってください」

”Please help me with (chores like) cooking or washing the clothes.”

Using か in the way you refer to would not be interpreted as a question (unless you make it sound like the sentence ends there, of course), but it would not be used in this context since it’s used to denote uncertainty. Kind of like

「料理をしているか、洗濯をしているか……いずれにせよ、手伝うべきだ」

“Whether they are cooking, or whether they are washing the clothes… either way, you ought to help.”

or

「料理をしているか、洗濯をしているか、ちゃんと確認してから手伝うべきだ（でないと痛い目を見ることになるぞ）」

I.e. “you should determine whether they are cooking or whether they are washing clothes before attempting to assist them (otherwise you’ll be in for a world of trouble).” Basically, you could use it for hypotheticals in this way.