大切 / 大事 / 重要 — three ways to say 'important,' but which one for what?

Question

All three gloss as 'important,' but I've noticed native speakers reach for different ones in different contexts. Is there a rough rule — like 大切 leans emotional/personal value, 大事 leans caution/care, 重要 leans objective/formal significance? Or am I overfitting a pattern that isn't really there?

Accepted Answer

你的直覺大致正確：「大切」最常用在有感情連結的對象——家人、回憶、原則（大切な人、命を大切に）。「大事」偏向「要小心對待、別搞砸」的實用語氣（お大事に、大事な会議＝別遲到別出錯的那種重要）。「重要」則完全客觀、去感情化，常見於報告、政策、學術文章（重要な指標、重要な決定），幾乎不會用在人際感情上。