Common Errors - Actual / Actually

Actual

WRONG We'd like to know more about the actual crisis, not the economic problems of the past.

RIGHT We’d like to know more about the present/current crisis, not the economic problems of the past.

Present/Current means “happening or existing now”.
Actual means real (as opposed to “guessed” or “supposed”) : People think he is over fifty but his actual age is forty-eight.


Actually

WRONG We need to produce and export more than we do actually.

RIGHT We need to produce and export more than we do at present. (=now)

Actually means “strange as it may seem” and “in fact”: People think we’ve got lots of money, but actually we’re very poor.

Longman Dictionary of Common Errors (1987) adapted