Substantially vs Actually - What's the difference?
substantially | actually |
In a strong substantial manner; considerably.
* 2012 October 23, David Leonhardt, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/us/politics/race-for-president-leaves-income-slump-in-shadows.html?_r=1&hp]," New York Times (retrieved 24 October 2012):
To a great extent; in essence; essentially.
Without material qualifications.
(modal) In act or in fact; really; in truth; positively.
(obsolete) actively
remarked upon the irony that this qualifier of veracity often introduces an utter lie;, page 3 and,
* noted that in many cases, (term) functions as little more than a vacuous emphatic utterance.ibidem , page 4
* In practice, actually and its synonyms are often used to insinuate that the following is either unusual or contrary to a norm or preceding assumption, or to merely preface an overconfident opinion contrasting a previous statement or norm (as per 'vacuous emphasis' note above).
: This is actually a really beautiful song. (contrasting opinion)
: Actually , I'm not from France - I'm from Switzerland. (contrary from assumption)
: At the check-out, the cashier actually greeted me for once. (contrary from norm)
Actually is a synonym of substantially.
As adverbs the difference between substantially and actually
is that substantially is in a strong substantial manner; considerably while actually is in act or in fact; really; in truth; positively.substantially
English
Adverb
(en adverb)- For the first time since the Great Depression, median family income has fallen substantially over an entire decade. Income grew slowly through most of the last decade, except at the top of the distribution, before falling sharply when the financial crisis began.
actually
English
Adverb
(-)- Actually , I had nothing to do with that incident.
- Neither actually nor passively. — Fuller.