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In some situations everybody around me uses 重い, and when I went to the bicycle shop everyone was only using 重たい.

Both mean heavy, but what is the difference in meaning or context between them?

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1 Answer

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重たい supposed to used when saying about personal opinions (or as subjective), but 重い is for general usage (objective view).

But said that, when someone start using 重たい in one place, another people use same one unintentionally because they are very similar.

Personally, I think 重たい has some more feelings than 重い, because you can stress the sound "たい", so it looks like saying that you knew it by experience, about how heavy it is.

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+1 for subjective objective (same for 眠い　眠たい). I would add that -tai give a negative impression. – repecmps Jun 2 '11 at 6:56
And さびしい/さみしい as well. 重たい is typically negative, as repecmps mentioned, and used with abstract (think "emotionally weighty") things more often than 重い. – Derek Schaab Jun 2 '11 at 12:43

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