English Vocabulary - ACTUALLY

Hi, welcome back to engvid.com. I'm Adam. Today, I'm going to look at a

word that many of you have asked me to explain, because, you guys... it gets

a little bit confusing, I think. The word is "actually". How do we use

it, why do we use it, etc.? First, let's begin with how we say it.

Most people will not, and most native speakers will not say "act-tual-ly",

okay? Because the "t" is close to the "c" and the "u" it's very hard to

focus on it. So it sounds like "ak chu ally". I put the "a" very small,

because you almost don't hear it, okay? "Actually". Some people just say

"ak-chu-lly".

But if you can squeeze that little bit of an "a" in there, it'll sound

much more natural - "akchually". Why do we use this word? What does this word

mean? First of all, this word means "in fact". That's what "actually"

means. "Actual" means real, the fact of the situation. It's an adverb, "in

fact".

It is used to show a contrast from what people think or believe. And mostly

it's used to correct ideas or facts or beliefs or views, etc.

Whatever you think is true, if it's not true, how will I correct you? I

will say "Actually, it's like this". So, if you think A is true. I will

say "Actually, A is not true".

So that word "actually" is a sign that what you think is not exactly

correct. It could be completely wrong or it could be just a little bit

wrong, but I'm going to fix it for you, okay? So A is true. "Actually, no

A is not exactly true, it's a little bit like this, or it's a little bit

like that".

It'll be much easier when you see the examples I am going to give you,

okay? So let me put those on.

Okay so let's look at a couple of examples

of how "actually" is actually used. First we're going to look at the

first example, where sometimes there's only a one-word signal.

Sometimes, it's just a one-word signal to tell you something about your thinking is not right.

So Lisa and Clara are friends. Lisa is talking about her boyfriend or her

husband Tom. "Tom would never cheat on me." means he would never be with

another woman. And Clara says "Well, actually", that's all she needs to say.

Just from this one word, "actually", Lisa understands that her thinking is

wrong, that something is not right.

So she goes "What, with who?" "With who" means with who is he cheating on

me with? Who is the other woman? All from one word, because this word

means that what you think is not right. You have to change your thinking,

all right? So that's what most people use the word "actually" for.

Some other times it is used for emphasis. You want to emphasize that

information is not correct. So for example, many people think A. Whatever

A is, that's not important. Many people think A, but that is "actually" not

true. Now, if I said "Many people think A, but that is not true" that's

enough. Right away, not true means A is not true.

But some people add the word "actually" to emphasize that it's not true.

It is, in fact, not true and they're about to prove you why it's

not true. Why A is wrong and you should think B or C or whatever, okay?

Now this word, "actually", is used all the time by native English speakers, okay?

Even when you are writing, this is a very good transition word. I'll write

it sideways here. It can be a transition from one idea to a contrasting

idea, so a very good word to know. Spoken very commonly, written very

commonly, and used as a signal or used for emphasis to change an idea.

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