When do you say “literally” and when do you say “actually”?
Use “literally” to distinguish between language that might be confused as figurative speech. Use “actually” to clarify a statement that might be confused as unreal or exaggerated. If you don’t understand the difference, just use “actually.
Advice from the artist formally known as Coke Talk.
Also, people use actually as a passive aggressive way to make someone feel stupid. “Joe was actually correct about that mundane bullshit factoid”… the speaker is showing his surprise that Joe is smart enough to memorize that both dogs and bees can smell fear.
Literally would not be used in this case, figuratively speaking of course.
