In my head they have slightly different vibes. 大体 I tend to use like “generally speaking”, 普段 is kind of like “normal/typical”, and 大抵 is “usually/often”. Those last two I’ve described are kinda similar, but I think I would list towards the former being more of an adjective feeling vs the latter slightly more adverbial. That said, objectively speaking it’s all pretty similar, and I don’t think what I’ve said are hard and fast rules
If it helps 体大 can also be translated as “(the) gist” as in “the gist of it is” so it has some uses more similar to つまり depending on the context.
And 大抵 is usually used in response to or describing a habits or occurrences of things in your life. We learned it in Nakama 1 along with ぜんぜん、あまり、and よく if that also helps any
along with what everyone else said: 普通 implies normality. As a concept, 普通 feels more precise compared to the broader senses of “generally” or “typically” implied by the other two.
Hence trains that make local stops are called 普通電車 (or 各駅停車), never 大体電車 or 大抵電車. But that’s one of very few cases where these terms wouldn’t be interchangeable!
To be honest, I’ve been repeatedly visiting this post, writing something, and deleting it.
It’s really hard for me to explain those slight differences in English.
Oh, yeah, you sometimes see 大体 and 大抵 in kanji in some novels or papers/theses, and the words in kanji give their sentences a literary vibe, but you don’t use them in kanji recently. Generally, it is written as だいたい and たいてい.
Let me start with 普段. 普段 means “Always be in a certain state of being, nothing special”. So, I think it can be normally or ordinarily.
There’s a word 普段着, which means everyday clothes, or casual wear.
Ex. 普段、テレビを見ないので、そのニュースのことは全然知らなかった。/ I usually/normally don’t watch TV, so I didn’t know anything about that news.
The site said 「だいたい」は一つのもののうちの大部分 /だいたい is the greater part of one thing, whereas 「たいてい」はいくつかあるうちの大部分 / is the majority of the time, among several things.
I think what that site says is right, but Japanese people tend to use だいたい and たいてい in the same way these days if they mean usually.
日曜はだいたい家にいる。/ I’m usually/mostly at home on Sunday.
日曜はたいてい家にいる。/ I’m usually/mostly at home on Sunday.
I think the theory of that site would work if you think of every Sunday as one thing for だいたい, because every Sunday is singular.
Just so you know, だいたい can used as about, around, approximately, nearly with ぐらい.
Ex. 今、だいたい1000円ぐらいしか持っていないです。/ I only have about 1000 yen with me right now.
Also, you can say だいたいわかりました / I mostly understand, but you barely say たいていわかりました. Some people might say that with たいてい, but it actually sounds off.
“たいていのことはわかりました / I understand most things about it” would be better.
Hope that helps 🙂
Daitai: “I mostly spend my time alone”. “Of the time I spend, the biggest part is spent alone, more or less.”
Fudan: “I typically spend my time alone”. “My everyday, casual state of being is spending my time alone”.
Taitei: “I most often spend my time alone”. “What I do most often is spending time alone.”
Those are the nuances but in this context they’re interchangeable, really.
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In my head they have slightly different vibes. 大体 I tend to use like “generally speaking”, 普段 is kind of like “normal/typical”, and 大抵 is “usually/often”. Those last two I’ve described are kinda similar, but I think I would list towards the former being more of an adjective feeling vs the latter slightly more adverbial. That said, objectively speaking it’s all pretty similar, and I don’t think what I’ve said are hard and fast rules
If it helps 体大 can also be translated as “(the) gist” as in “the gist of it is” so it has some uses more similar to つまり depending on the context.
And 大抵 is usually used in response to or describing a habits or occurrences of things in your life. We learned it in Nakama 1 along with ぜんぜん、あまり、and よく if that also helps any
along with what everyone else said: 普通 implies normality. As a concept, 普通 feels more precise compared to the broader senses of “generally” or “typically” implied by the other two.
Hence trains that make local stops are called 普通電車 (or 各駅停車), never 大体電車 or 大抵電車. But that’s one of very few cases where these terms wouldn’t be interchangeable!
To be honest, I’ve been repeatedly visiting this post, writing something, and deleting it.
It’s really hard for me to explain those slight differences in English.
Oh, yeah, you sometimes see 大体 and 大抵 in kanji in some novels or papers/theses, and the words in kanji give their sentences a literary vibe, but you don’t use them in kanji recently. Generally, it is written as だいたい and たいてい.
Let me start with 普段.
普段 means “Always be in a certain state of being, nothing special”. So, I think it can be normally or ordinarily.
There’s a word 普段着, which means everyday clothes, or casual wear.
Ex. 普段、テレビを見ないので、そのニュースのことは全然知らなかった。/ I usually/normally don’t watch TV, so I didn’t know anything about that news.
I think だいたい and たいてい in the sense of usually are more like mostly or almost.
However, I feel like it’s tricky to tell you the difference between the two.
I found [this site](https://nantong-japanese.com/2021/08/15/%e3%80%8c%e3%81%a0%e3%81%84%e3%81%9f%e3%81%84%e3%80%8d%e3%81%a8%e3%80%8c%e3%81%9f%e3%81%84%e3%81%a6%e3%81%84%e3%80%8d%e3%81%ae%e4%bd%bf%e3%81%84%e5%88%86%e3%81%91/).
The site said 「だいたい」は一つのもののうちの大部分 /だいたい is the greater part of one thing, whereas 「たいてい」はいくつかあるうちの大部分 / is the majority of the time, among several things.
I think what that site says is right, but Japanese people tend to use だいたい and たいてい in the same way these days if they mean usually.
日曜はだいたい家にいる。/ I’m usually/mostly at home on Sunday.
日曜はたいてい家にいる。/ I’m usually/mostly at home on Sunday.
I think the theory of that site would work if you think of every Sunday as one thing for だいたい, because every Sunday is singular.
Just so you know, だいたい can used as about, around, approximately, nearly with ぐらい.
Ex. 今、だいたい1000円ぐらいしか持っていないです。/ I only have about 1000 yen with me right now.
Also, you can say だいたいわかりました / I mostly understand, but you barely say たいていわかりました.
Some people might say that with たいてい, but it actually sounds off.
“たいていのことはわかりました / I understand most things about it” would be better.
Hope that helps 🙂
Daitai: “I mostly spend my time alone”. “Of the time I spend, the biggest part is spent alone, more or less.”
Fudan: “I typically spend my time alone”. “My everyday, casual state of being is spending my time alone”.
Taitei: “I most often spend my time alone”. “What I do most often is spending time alone.”
Those are the nuances but in this context they’re interchangeable, really.