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Both of them I have seen often. Can I use them interchangeably?

LPH
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wodemingzi
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    "A so-big house" would usually carry a derogatory connotation. – Hot Licks Apr 29 '20 at 15:06
  • "Why do they need so big a house?" is grammatical, while "Why do they need such big a house?" is far more idiomatic. "Why do they need a so big house?" would have been considered ungrammatical 50 years ago; now, it may be teenspeak. "I so want to talk to you." – Edwin Ashworth Apr 29 '20 at 15:10
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    Does this answer your question? "You're too clever a man" (Terri Lee's answer includes 'To me, sentences like He is a too/so big man are never correct. We need to restructure the sentence as He is too/so big a man.') – Edwin Ashworth Apr 29 '20 at 15:12
  • Google 4-grams for 'so big a house' and 'a so big house' (the latter a flatline). – Edwin Ashworth Apr 29 '20 at 15:35
  • a so-big house is a typical non-native mistake used instead of: such a big house – Lambie Apr 29 '20 at 15:58
  • "Such a big house" and "a house so big" are unremarkable in English. "A so big house" and "a such big house" are unremarkable in German and Dutch (and probably the Scandinavian languages as well, from what little I know of those). To me this would suggest that unless you're looking at a mere typo, or at plain ungrammatical English by someone who doesn't speak it, you are looking at a traveler from a time when English was still German rather than French. – RegDwigнt Apr 29 '20 at 16:00
  • Speaking as an Australian, "a so-big house" sounds fine to me, especially if it's accompanied by hand gestures indicating a particular size. – nick012000 Apr 30 '20 at 15:00
  • @nick012000 If Aussies have hands so big, how come they drop the occasional catch?:) – Edwin Ashworth Apr 30 '20 at 15:19

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"So big a house" might be used in several contexts:

Why do you need so big a house?

It was so big a house that you needed a map to find your way through it.

"A so-big house" is wording which kind of diminishes the "bigness":

It was a so-big house, large enough to move around in but certainly not big enough for a party.

(These examples are admittedly a little strained, but better ones would come in a larger context.)

(I will add that "a so big" often appears on the web as an error, where "so big a" would be more appropriate. These uses are apparently written carelessly or by someone not skilled in English. The "correct" uses are fairly rare.)

Hot Licks
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"A so-big [item]" is used to indicate an item of a particular size.

I don't have a dictionary definition for it, but my understanding, "a so-big [item]", usually phrased as something along the lines of "an [item] about so-big", is used to describe the size of an item that comes in varying sizes, usually when ordering a purchase of such an item. This is usually accompanied by hand gestures that indicate an approximate size of the item desired.

For instance, someone might say "I want a cake about so-big", and then hold their hands a distance apart to indicate the size of the cake desired. If used to refer to a house someone wants built, they might stand a ways away from it and gesture at points on the land it's to be built with their hands.

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nick012000
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This ngram shows that "a so big house" is not used (not correct). This one shows that the construction "a so big …" is not used. This is true for all adjectives.

Remark that the adjectival phrase can be placed after the noun in this case because it contains the adverbial modifier "so" (ngram).

  • so big a house, a house so big

Here are a few examples of the use of "so big a house".

Dancing to "Almendra": A Novel Mayra Montero - 2007 - ... had a few drinks, and talked about the hippopotamus, the rumors he'd heard, the absurd way the animal was killed. Later we went to his house, which belonged to his mother-in-law. I never imagined the wretch would live in so big a house, ...

Alaska: A Novel - James A. Michener - 2013 - When Trofim asked: “Why so big a house?” she said bluntly: “Because we three are going to live here.” He gasped, but she pressed on: “You're getting to be an old man, Cossack, and I'm not getting younger.” He was forty-four that year, she ...

Tractates on the Gospel of John 112–24; Tractates on the ... Saint Augustine - 1988 ... and it was so big a house that it could hold its owner living in one part, and a judge in a separate part. 2. "Now it was morning, and they," that is, those who were leading Jesus, "went not into the praetorium," that is, into that part of the house ...

The Enemy At Home Meriol Trevor - 2013 - She was glad to leave the mechanics of running the house in their bands. She had never lived in so big a house—though they did not live in the whole of it, nor even in half. Dominique was organizing the care of the estates and was.

The corner house girls: how they moved to Milton, what they ... - Grace Brooks Hill - 1915 know how to live, Dot, in so big a house. Just think! there's three stories and an attic!" "Just as if we were living in this very tenement all, all alone!" breathed Dot, with awe. "Only much better — and bigger — and nicer," said Tess, eagerly.

The Constitutional Review - Volume 13 Henry Campbell Black - 1929 - In so big a house, with so many rooms and so many people, there are many things in the way of general housekeeping that must be attended to, especially the care of the common rooms and corridors, the operation of the big kitchen and ...

A Dreamer's Paradise - David Karanja - 2001 - ‎ People wondered where somebody could get the money to build so big a house. They also wondered why someone would need such a big house. The peo ple of Pawezi lived a communal life in which everyone considered themselves a part ...

Two examples of the use of "a house so big"

The Dreamer: Where Dreams Become Reality and Reality Becomes … J.M.Hurley - 2011 - Kyle gave my hand a squeeze and pulled me past the shed, in the direction of his house. When we came around the corner of shrubs, Kyle came to a stop. We stood in front of a house so big that I'd only seen pictures of houses like it.

Waiting for the Sun: Musings about Life, Laughter and Love - Christal Marshall - Wallup had a house so big that he had a pool, fifteen cars, a roller coaster and a large collection of cheese puffs from around the world caged in delicate glass cases. Uzz, Buzz, Fuzz and Carol bought a house next to a cheese puff factory and ...

Here is an ngram showing all the nouns commonly used with "so big a": man, fool, part, place, job, thing, scale, manuscript, book, one.

LPH
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    Ngrams cannot determine correctness. Also, novels have all sorts of speech, including sometimes, unidiomatic English that characters in novels might speak... – Lambie Apr 29 '20 at 15:59
  • @Lambie They can't do that in all cases but more often than not they do; in any case, as far as this form goes (so big a …) I need no ngram to know it is a correct form. – LPH Apr 29 '20 at 18:18