What’s the difference between generally and mainly?

This week we are looking at two words which may be confused by learners of English: generally and mainly.

generally

Generally means `usually’, `in most cases’, or `on the whole’.

Paperback books are generally cheapest.

His answer was generally correct.

mainly

Use mainly, rather than ‘generally’, to say that something is true about most of something, or about most of the people or things in a group.

The room is mainly blue.

The people in the audience were mainly from Senegal or Mali.


Find out more in our English Usage article.

This blogpost is based on Collins COBUILD English Usage, written for learners of English. For more examples of English usage points, please visit:  https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/english-usage.

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.

Other Articles

Phrasal verbs: verb + adverb + preposition

Some phrasal verbs are a combination of the verb + adverb and verb + preposition phrasal verbs. All the parts of this type of phrasal verb come BEFORE the object. We are looking forward to our holiday. Don’t put up with it! You must look out for the warning signs. I’m so fed up with city life. Phrasal verbs with… Read More

Phrasal verbs: verb + preposition

Some verb + preposition phrasal verbs always have an object. This is because prepositions always have an object. He asked for his bill. She listened to him. They referred to our conversation. Some phrasal verbs with prepositions are: add to, agree with, approve of, ask for, believe in, care for, hope for, laugh at, look for, refer to,… Read More

Phrasal verbs: verb + adverb

Some verb + adverb phrasal verbs have no object, i.e. they are intransitive, for example, get up, go away, hold on: Mary went away. Helen sat down. The students came back. Others do require an object, i.e. they are transitive, for example, blow something up, close something down, pick someone up: We could make out a figure in the distance. Read More