"big" versus "large"
Sé que "big" y "large" significan los dos "grande". Pero no sé si son intercambiables. Es decir, no sé si hay alguna diferencia entre los dos. ¿Podría alguien orientarme'
13 Answers
I think the difference between "big" and "large" is mostly a matter of convention on when to use each. You can say "a big house", but "a large house" sounds strange. When you order food, you ask for "a large portion", not "a big portion". Clothes come in small, medium and large sizes; tall people are big but corpulent people are large. If you earn a big salary, you take home a large sum of money. And so on and on. I can't seem to find any logic to it.
"Great" is a lot simpler though: it usually means "very good". Maradona was a great soccer player. Barack Obama promises to be a great leader. The weather in Los Angeles is great. French wine is great.
Lo siento creo que ese foro ya estaba abierto "bad versus badly". Y lo abrí yo. Lo único es que se me había olvidado pasar la información a mis ficheros "Word". Ahí tengo toda la información de los foros que yo abro en una carpeta para irla leyendo despacio, pero este foro, no sé por qué se me olvidó pasarlo.
Gracias por todo.
Ya he entrado en el enlace y parece muy bueno. La única falta que he encontrado es que me hubiera gustado que tuviera las traducciones de los ejemplos al español. Por ejemplo, he tratado de ver la diferencia entre "bad" y "badly" y no lo he averiguado. Tendré que abrir un hilo.
Aquí tienes la versión en línea:
http://www.ldoceonline.com/
Tiene algunas restricciones, pero al menos indica las "colocaciones" y tiene notas sobre el uso de las palabras.
Muchas gracias, Lazarus. Me gusta tener reglas a las que atenerme para conocer la diferencia entre "big" y "large".
Por cierto, no sabía que había un diccionario Longman. ¿Y tiene reglas también'. Verás yo también utilizo los ejemplos del diccionario, pero no me viene ninguna regla escrita.
From the Longman's dictionary:
big and large have the same meaning, but large is slightly more formal and more likely to be used in written than spoken English ? a big lunch ? a large house
large is used with quantity words such as 'number' and 'amount' ? large amounts of money ? a large proportion of the students
great is not usually used to talk about size but it can be used in literary writing to describe very large and impressive things ? Before them stood a great palace.
great is used with length, height, and age, and in the expression a great deal (=a lot) ? The grass had reached a great height. ? a great deal of money
Sin embargo, ha llamado poderosamente mi atención que has utilizado "big" y "large" con palabras relacionadas con dinero. ¿Podría ser que "big" se debe emplear con "salary", y "large" se debe emplear con "money"'.
I honestly can't say. I don't know any rules in English, or even in my native language. My knowledge consists simply of thousands upon thousands of sentences I have read or heard before.
(my apologies for replying in English. I have a large vocabulary in Spanish and can understand practically anything, but I haven't yet read or heard enough Spanish to write with confidence)
I don't know of any "rule" either (and if I were told that there was one, I'd be very suspicious). For the most part, I'd say that they are interchangeable (by which I mean, not that they are equally used in any given context, but that using the "less common" would not sound especially peculiar. Nonetheless there are certain phrases in which one (or the other) is so often used that a departure from customary usage does, indeed, sound strange. However, I can't imagine any principle that would serve as a guide for distinguishing them.
Sin embargo, ha llamado poderosamente mi atención que has utilizado "big" y "large" con palabras relacionadas con dinero. ¿Podría ser que "big" se debe emplear con "salary", y "large" se debe emplear con "money"'.
I honestly can't say. I don't know any rules in English, or even in my native language. My knowledge consists simply of thousands upon thousands of sentences I have read or heard before.
(my apologies for replying in English. I have a large vocabulary in Spanish and can understand practically anything, but I haven't yet read or heard enough Spanish to write with confidence)
I think the difference between "big" and "large" is mostly a matter of convention on when to use each. You can say "a big house", but "a large house" sounds strange. When you order food, you ask for "a large portion", not "a big portion". Clothes come in small, medium and large sizes; tall people are big but corpulent people are large. If you earn a big salary, you take home a large sum of money. And so on and on. I can't seem to find any logic to it.
"Great" is a lot simpler though: it usually means "very good". Maradona was a great soccer player. Barack Obama promises to be a great leader. The weather in Los Angeles is great. French wine is great.
"There's a large white house on the corner." "It's a good restaurant but the portions are too big and doggy bags are a nuisance." "Do you have this shirt in a bigger size'" None of these sounds strange to me (nor would they sound strange with the big/large reversed).
"The great plains of the American mid-west" "The Great Wall of China" "The Greater Antilles" "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" "Great Britain" "... creatures great and small / for the dear Lord who made us, he loves them one and all" (this last is from memory and probably a bit of a misquote)
Me parece bien conocer otros ejemplos con "big" y con "large". Y como tú dices, en dichos ejemplos no parece haber una lógica en su uso.
Sin embargo, ha llamado poderosamente mi atención que has utilizado "big" y "large" con palabras relacionadas con dinero. ¿Podría ser que "big" se debe emplear con "salary", y "large" se debe emplear con "money"'.
Bueno, ya que parece que yo debería aprenderme el uso de "big" y de "large" con cada palabra según la situación, por lo menos, me gustaría saber si se suele utilizar "big" con "salary" y "large" con "money". (O si no, a lo mejor lo de "large" no va tanto con "money" sino con "amount". A lo mejor se utiliza "large" con una cantidad de algo, ¿no'.
Se me acaba de ocurrir algo... "Large" es para extensión. "Big" es para extensión y también para hablar de la importancia de algo. ¿Y cuándo se utiliza "great"'. ¿Es "great" más parecido a "big" o a "large"'. Y si es más parecido a "big", ¿cuál es la diferencia'. ¿O son intercambiables'
OK. That looks reasonable. Thank you.
There certainly are cases where they are interchangeable but, when they are not, I'd say that "large" tends to refer to actual physical dimensions while "big" refers to importance. e.g. "a big figure in politics", "a large bore rifle/pistol/cannon", "a big shot" (in the sense of "un tío/tipo importante", "a big deal". Caveat: this is just my "gut feeling". If you're not sure and have to make a choice, I'd say that it's safer to use "big".
