Several studies have been devoted, partly or wholly, to the different uses of the adverb actually. Although there is considerable agreement on the main discourse functions actually can perform, there is little consensus on which subtypes to distinguish, and how these subtypes, and the functions they perform, are related to the formal properties of actually. Consequently, conclusions concerning the relation between the various functions of actually and its position and prosodic realization are often contradictory, and the overall picture is still incomplete. On the basis of data from the International Corpus of English – Great Britain, this article presents the results of a systematic (qualitative and quantitative) investigation into the function, position and prosody of actually, and the way in which these factors interact. It is demonstrated that (i) by classifying the many functions of actually identified in previous studies into three major types (propositional, discourse-pragmatic and discourse-organizational) and (ii) by appealing to additional functional factors, such as scope, strength and orientation, to distinguish a limited number of subtypes, it is possible to detect strong correlations between the functions of actually and its formal (positional and prosodic) features.