四大
sì dà · the four elements: earth, water, fire, and wind (Buddhism); the four freedoms: speaking out freely, airing views fully, holding great debates, and writing big-character posters, 大鳴大放|大鸣大放[da4 ming2 da4 fang4], 大辯論|大辩论[da4 bian4 lun4], 大字報|大字报[da4 zi4 bao4] (PRC)
Character breakdown
Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.
How to learn 四大
Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.
When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.
Words with the same characters
Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.
big; large; great; older (than another person); eldest (as in 大姐[da4 jie3]); greatly; freely; fully; (dialect) father; (dialect) uncle (father's brother)
大家dàjiāeveryone; influential family; great expert
大学dàxuéthe Great Learning, one of the Four Books 四書|四书[Si4 shu1] in Confucianism; university; college; CL:所[suo3]
大学生dàxuéshēnguniversity student; college student
四sìfour; 4
大概dàgàiroughly; probably; rough; approximate; about; general idea