大
big; large; (of age) old
dà
What does 大 mean?
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.
Character breakdown
big; a pictograph of a person standing with arms outstretched
Memory hook: 大 is a person (人) with arms spread wide — showing how BIG something is.
Example sentences
这个苹果很大。
Zhè gè píngguǒ hěn dà.
This apple is big.
spoken
你今年多大？
Nǐ jīnnián duō dà?
How old are you this year?
spoken
他是我的大哥。
Tā shì wǒ de dà gē.
He is my older brother.
spoken
中国很大。
Zhōngguó hěn dà.
China is big.
neutral
Common phrases with 大
Hear it in real Fluentide episodes
大 appears in 2 podcast episodes at natural native speed, with full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Synonyms
巨大 means 'huge / enormous' — much stronger than 大, and more written. Use 大 for everyday 'big'; 巨大 for things like 'enormous impact / huge mountain.'
Don't confuse 大 with
太 ('too') is 大 with an extra dot — they look almost identical. 大 = big; 太 = too / excessively (太大 = too big).
天 ('sky / day') is 大 with a line on top. Different character, different meaning.
多 means 'many / much' (quantity). 大 means 'big' (size). 多 books = many books; 大 book = a big book.