大

大 (dà) is the basic Chinese adjective for 'big' or 'large' — in physical size, quantity, intensity, or importance. It functions both as a stand-alone predicate (这个房子很大 — this house is big) and as a prefix to a noun (大问题 — a big problem). Two uses surprise English speakers: first, 大 also marks AGE for people — 你多大？ literally 'you how big?' means 'how old are you?'

for anyone older than a small child. Second, 大 attaches to nouns to form fixed compounds like 大学 (university, lit. 'big study'), 大家 (everyone), 大概 (roughly). Like most Chinese adjectives, 大 normally takes 很 (hěn) before it in plain affirmative sentences — 很大 — even when no real 'very' is intended.