literally
part of speech
adverb (literally)
meaning for a pupil
1) Literally means exactly as the words say, not as a figure of speech. tree →
2) In everyday talk, people often say "literally" just to make something sound stronger, even when it is not really true. tree →
3) Literally can mean word for word, as in a translation that follows each word. tree →
sense in the lessons
In English lessons, pupils learn the difference between literal meaning (the real meaning of the words) and figurative meaning (idioms, metaphors). "It's raining cats and dogs" is not literally true. Phrases: "take something literally", "literally true", "translated literally".
examples
- The sign literally said "Do not touch", so we didn't. tree →
- "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse" is not meant literally. tree →
- My little brother took the joke literally. tree →
- The word "breakfast" literally means breaking a fast. tree →
- I literally ran all the way to school. tree →
- The French phrase, translated literally, means "the cat's ears". tree →
- She was literally shaking with cold. tree →
note
Many careful speakers dislike using "literally" when something is not true ("I literally died laughing"); in writing, use it only when it really is exact. The opposite is "figuratively". Spelled with double l in the middle: lit-er-al-ly.
In the corpora
- The first word you catch is nǐ hǎo (hello, literally «you good»).
- "xióngmāo" means panda, literally "bear-cat"; in Taiwan some people say māoxióng.
- "xiàwǔ" means afternoon, literally "after noon"; shàngwǔ, "before noon", is the late morning.
- "lǎnchóng" means lazybones, literally "lazy worm", and parents use it fondly on Sunday mornings.
- Quotation marks around a word can show that it isn't meant literally, like «by accident» when it was on purpose.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «literally» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.