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I answered wrong the following question:

There is a nice house with a big/large garden.

I chose big. Is it incorrect indeed?

Gyonder
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2 Answers2

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I don't think you answered the question wrong. I think both sound just fine. Grammatically, and in terms of common usage, both are correct.

Here is a little bit of reading to give you some information on the minor differences between the two: BBC

English SE

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JMB
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    Amusing that the page you link to uses almost the exact same sentence -- "The house has a big/large garden" -- as an example of where either one works just as well. I have no idea what the person who wrote the test thought was the "right" answer. – Jay May 26 '15 at 13:33
  • The test writer was wrong... terribly wrong. – Dronz May 26 '15 at 16:53
  • Yeah. It did occur to me to write something about the test writer in my answer, but I refrained from it. In the end, we don't actually know what the question was, just what OP gave us. Yeah, I was pretty happy the Beeb backed up my answer with the exact same thing! – JMB May 26 '15 at 19:10
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    I'd like to know more about the directions and test objectives. For example, if the question asked for someone to pick the more precise word, large could be considered the better choice. There is nothing grammatically wrong with big, of course, but if the test was designed to help learners pick a better adjective, it might be a large garden, a tall building, a gigantic animal, a spacious field, and a vast galaxy (not a big garden, a big building, a big animal, a big field, and a big galaxy). – J.R. May 26 '15 at 21:29
  • #J.R. The test link is : http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-3311.php – Gyonder May 27 '15 at 08:12
  • Yeah, I think we can chalk that up to the test writer (anonyme) being wrong! – JMB May 27 '15 at 08:29
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    @J.R. Since a garden can only really be "big" in one sense (covering a large area), I don't think that "big" is even any less precise in this case. – David Richerby May 27 '15 at 09:09
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    @David - No argument from me; I was just trying to get into the mind of the test maker. Now that I've seen the test, I'm done with trying to give the test maker the benefit of the doubt. – J.R. May 27 '15 at 10:04
  • I would see a tiny difference in meaning, I would buy a house with a big garden to impress others, I would buy a house with a large garden if I enjoy much space in my garden. But since the test only asked whether the sentence was right or wrong without discussing the meaning, both are right. – gnasher729 Jun 02 '15 at 13:00
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Both adjectives suggest generally the idea of something above average size but broadly large refers to size and big to importance or significance. Large is used for example with clothes and sizes such as small/medium/large/extra large.

A large house would be one with a lot of rooms - a big house also with a lot of rooms and possibly looking imposing as well.

Ramsy de Vos
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