student asking question

What does "literally" mean in this case? Please introduce the similar expressions and explain the difference between them.

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"Literally" in this context means in an exact, word-for-word manner. So here, "literally" is used before the verb "made" to emphasize that the action of her making a new friend was done in an exact manner, which means she built the new friend instead of simply becoming friends with someone new. Ex: She was being sarcastic but he took the compliment literally. Ex: I literally passed out after that run yesterday.

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