Both mean important according to WaniKani, but is there any difference between the two?
1 Like
This thesaurus entry says they are almost the same (ほぼ同意), but then in the comparison table it does have one difference, where in the sentence 彼の行動には__な意味がある, 大事 is regarded as acceptable and 大切 is regarded as questionable. It doesn’t have any elaboration on why.
The entry may give you a good feel for these two in relation to other “important” words though, such as 重要 and some less common ones also covered.
Oh, and I guess one other major difference is that 大事 has a second set of meanings as a noun, rather than a な adjective. In that case, it means “a serious matter” or “a great undertaking” and it has a whole separate thesaurus entry. In that meaning it also has 2 readings, だいじ and おおごと.
7 Likes
Thank you for the quick reply! 
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.