 In this video, you're going to learn how to use actually. Of course, I'm Jennifer from jforsenglish.com and this channel is dedicated to helping you sound like a fluent, confident, natural English speaker. Now before we go any further, make sure you subscribe and hit that bell icon so you're notified every time I post a new lesson. Now let's dive in with this video. Now actually is an adverb and it's used in the sense of in fact. So it's used to clarify information to state what is true or accurate. Now I see students misusing actually. In fact, I see students using actually way too often when the context does not require it and it sounds awkward. Let's imagine I'm talking to one of my students and I ask them a question and I ask what's the weather like in Egypt? And then the student could clarify this information and state what is true or accurate and the student could reply back and say actually I'm from Turkey. Actually is used to clarify this piece of information, okay? But the way I see students using this a lot is they just say actually I'm from Turkey but nobody suggested they were from a different place. They were just using it as a transition word but it can't be used unless information was already implied that's different not as accurate or not as true is what you're correcting with actually. So keep that in mind it's a really important distinction because it sounds quite awkward when I hear students use actually a lot. So another example let's say my boss says how are sales this quarter? And I reply back and I say they're actually up three percent. Now here I use actually because the assumption was that our sales would be down even though it wasn't explicitly stated it's just obvious based on the current sales environment the current economy or the current company environment that the sales would be down. So this would be surprising information for my boss so that's why I'm using actually in this context they're actually up three percent by using actually people would think the sales would be down and I'm clarifying it. So just remember when you use actually as an adverb there has to be some sort of clarifying information. Now there is another way we use actually and that's in the sense of really so when you're talking about the reality or the real situation I don't see students making mistakes with this use of actually so it's just the other use that I think can be improved. So in this case I could say something like I didn't actually call a hundred companies. So let's say I'm telling my friend a story about how I'm trying to find a job and I say last week I called a hundred companies and then she says oh wow that's a lot of companies you must be tired and then I want to clarify well I didn't actually call a hundred companies. So it's like saying I didn't really call a hundred companies so we you know we tend to exaggerate information or be a little dramatic so we might clarify it and use actually. Another example I didn't actually talk to him. So let's say I'm telling this amazing story about how I met Steve Carell on downtown in Toronto just by chance okay and then I'm telling the story and I'm making it sound really amazing and then someone asked me oh well is he a nice guy and I might say well I didn't actually talk to him so in reality I didn't talk to him. I didn't really talk to him. Again I might have made the story sound a little more exciting than it actually was than it actually was. Notice I use actually right there. Okay one final one. So what actually happened? This is a great question I think this would probably be one of the common ways you would use actually to talk about really. So what really happened? What actually happened? So let's say you got fired from your job but you're being very diplomatic about it and then you know your co-workers are like come on just tell us what actually happened. They want to know the real situation the reality not the diplomatic answer. All right so now you know how to use actually so it's your turn to practice. I want you to leave two examples in the comments below one using where you're clarifying information so our first example and the second one where you're using it as really so leave those two examples in the comments below. If you found this video helpful please hit the like button share it with your friends and of course subscribe. Now before you go make sure you head on over to my website jforisenglish.com and download your free speaking guide. In this guide I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently and until next time happy studying. Awesome job using actually correctly is going to help you sound very natural. So I'll see you in my next video. Bye!