"averagely speaking" and "generally speaking"

[sula54]

Dear all,

Today, I saw one of my friends wrote, "Averagely speaking, a person needs some support." Although I probably understand what he tried to say, but I really feel strange about the "Averagely speaking". Isn't that better if I use "Generally speaking"?

From the examples on the Internet, it seems that "averagely speaking" are always to do with numbers. For instance, "Averagely speaking, annually industry water use is 116 million cubic meters." or "Averagely speaking, about 1,000 sediment disasters occur every year in Japan." Then can I use "Averagely speaking" to show "what do the average people think" like the sentence my friend wrote? Or I only can use "averagely speaking" with numbers like "Averagely speaking, I take a shower three times a day.”

Thank you in advance.

[VenusEnvy]

Today, I saw one of my friends wrote, "Averagely speaking, a person needs some support." Although I probably understand what he tried to say, but I really feel strange about the "Averagely speaking". Isn't that better if I use "Generally speaking"?

I think that your friend used the word "averagely" in the wrong context. I would instead use "generally speaking", as you suggested.

From the examples on the Internet, it seems that "averagely speaking" are always to do with numbers. For instance, "Averagely speaking, annually industry water use is 116 million cubic meters." or "Averagely speaking, about 1,000 sediment disasters occur every year in Japan."

In the examples you pulled off the Internet, averagely is used because they are talking about statistics. "Average" as a statistical term used to find a middle number or value; it is obtained by dividing the sum of all values by the number of values that exist.

Then can I use "Averagely speaking" to show "what do the average people think" like the sentence my friend wrote? Or I only can use "averagely speaking" with numbers like "Averagely speaking, I take a shower three times a day.”

I agree with your initial feelings about its use. Use "averagely speaking" when speaking of numbers. Use "generally speaking" when speaking generally about what people do.


I hope I've helped!
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