What's the difference between 大きいケーキ and 大きなケーキ?


I'm studying for Japanese exam of the second year and teacher corrected this
sentence-mistake:

> 音楽 を 聞いた あとで、 **大きい** ケーキ を たべました。

was corrected to

> 音楽 を 聞いた あとで、 **大きな** ケーキ を たべました。

What is the difference?




Here is an extensive article about this topic.

[「大きい声」と「大きな声」](http://www.urayasu.meikai.ac.jp/japanese/meikainihongo/7/sasaki.pdf)

Very short summary:

  * 大きい and 大きな are interchangeable in most cases.

  * On average, 大きな is 8 times more frequently used than 大きい which directly modifies the following noun.

  * 大きい sometimes means "elder/older". 大きな doesn't.

> 一番大きい兄さん (the eldest brother) vs. 一番大きな兄さん (elder brother with the largest
> body)

  * 大きな/小さな sometimes expresses the sense of intimacy with the modified noun, while 大きい/小さい doesn't.

> 小さな胸 (someone's little heart) vs. 小さい胸 (small breast)  
>  (the difference may be not as big as the English translation suggests)

  * Some set phrases only accept 大きな.

  * Statistical analysis revealed many famous novelists almost exclusively use 大きな in their works, while a few novelists mainly use 大きい.

  * And the author failed to find the meaningful difference in usage between 大きな声 and 大きい声, after investigating 440 real examples.

* * *

Personally, I see no meaningful semantic difference between 大きいケーキ and 大きなケーキ.
However, I do feel 大きなケーキ is more common. Sticking to 大きな when it refers to
the physical size of something seems to be a safe strategy, and that may be
the sole reason your teacher corrected your sentence.

