So, this catchy song, "U.S.A." by DA PUMP:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr--GVIoluU>

<https://www.oricon.co.jp/special/51204/>

<https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_(DA_PUMP%E3%81%AE%E6%9B%B2)>

has the following in the lyrics:

> どっちかの夜は昼間

Because this is a (cover) song by Japanese artists about the U.S.A., I figure
that it means "where it's nighttime in one, it's daytime in the other".

Anyway, this is the first time I've seen this sentence structure (どちらかの～は～).
Is this accepted, formal Japanese? If not, does it have a formal equivalent?
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2018-06-13T17:51:34.953
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question
usage song-lyrics
Is「どっちかの～は～」a non-slang Japanese expression?
In my opinion, I think that the question hinges on
[どちらか](https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%A9%E3%81%A1%E3%82%89%E3%81%8B), or
as the song has it, どっちか. If you looked at the link, webilo has a pretty good
definition, if you can read the Japanese:

> 不定称の代名詞で、複数ある中の一つを限定せずに示す表現。いずれか。どっちか。

It basically says that this is an expression behaves as a pronoun. This
pronoun does not specify which option is taken.

In other words, it means `either.`

**どっちかの** can simply be translated as the possessive どっちか (either).

Long story short, I wouldn't say that this is a specific grammar structure,
but rather a combination of several grammar structures. As such, it's not
uncommon, but not common enough to be listed as its own grammar stucture.

* * *

I'm going to break it down from here.

**どっちかの夜:** Evening in either place

**は:** subject

**昼間:** [Daytime](https://jisho.org/search/%E6%98%BC%E9%96%93)

My translation is as follows.

> Evening/Nighttime in either place is daytime (for the other).

Note that I took liberty of assuming we were talking about different places
from the clues you gave in your question. Also note that my addition in
parenthesis isn't specifically stated. I suspect that there is more to the
sentence than you included.
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answer