He stomps on my foot intentionally.
He stomps on my foot deliberately.
He did it intentionally.
He did it deliberately.
When should we use intentionally and deliberately?
Learn English – When should we use intentionally and deliberately
word-choice
word-choice
He stomps on my foot intentionally.
He stomps on my foot deliberately.
He did it intentionally.
He did it deliberately.
When should we use intentionally and deliberately?
Best Answer
When you want to state that an action was done on purpose, the two words are very closely synonymous and nearly always interchangeable.
I personally use deliberately when I want to say that someone not only did an action on purpose, but that the method by which they did it was thought out and careful, particularly if it was a negative action. This brings in the second definition of deliberately, "unhurried and carefully."
Intentionally is perhaps very slightly more formal, but deliberately is perfectly acceptable in formal writing as well. You see intentionally used in instructions, for instance, "The following pages were intentionally left blank." I have never seen deliberately used in that setting.
For informal situations "on purpose" or "purposely" is more common, though both of the other words are used in informal settings as well.