ケイトさんは大きな家にすんでいます。(Kate lives in a big house.)
When one of my students came across this sentence, she exclaimed, “I thought 大き was an いadjective. I didn’t know it was a なadjective!” So I had to quickly intervene, “Yes, 大きい is an いadjective, not a な adjective! 大きな and 大きい are two different words although they both mean the same!”
Confusing?
大きな is actually not an adjective. In Japanese it is called 連体詞（れんたいし, “prenoun adjectival”）
and “prenoun adjectivals” can only be used immediately before a noun. They cannot become a predicate, i.e. it cannot be used with です/だ at the end of a sentence.
ケイトさんは、大きい家にすんでいます。✔
ケイトさんは、大きな家にすんでいます。✔
ケイトさんの家は、大きいです。✔
ケイトさんの家は、大きなです。✖
Other examples of “prenoun adjectivals” are:
小さなカバンをかいました。
このケーキはおいしいです。
I will talk a bit more about “prenoun adjectivals” soon.
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