daitai vs. hotondo

[vincenthugo]

'daitai' to 'hotondo' wa, dou chigaimasu ka? onaji kotoba desu ka?

[tiroth2]

I would gloss these as

daitai = for the most part
hotondo = almost all

I think hotondo is stronger.

[padrik]

Your correct tiroth2, hotondo is stronger, used for "almost all, almost completely, etc." Daitai = "about, around, etc..."

[NickT]

ほとんど　can be used both positively and negatively.... "almost all" or "hardly/ hardly any"

だいたい is only ever used in a positive sense as far as I can tell, to mean "mostly, for the most part".

だいたい　also seems to have a related meaning of "roughly, about" which I'm not sure ほとんど has.

[vincenthugo]

thanks everyone! so many subtleties..

[kichigaijin]

Just wanted to add the point that you don't use either when you talk about time.
It's more common to say 十時ごろ (juujigoro) for "around 10 o'clock" and 十時前 (juujimae) for "almost 10 o'clock". Got chewed out the other week from my Okinawan friends for that one.