Most of the usage of "matter-of-factly" that I've seen is to describe a manner of speaking – "He said, matter of factly,…", etc.
A friend brought up the following usage, which seems wrong, but I can't pinpoint exactly what is wrong. "Matter of factly, I don't know. I know from my dad's experience."
What's the view on this?
Couple of points:
- The adjective form "As a matter of fact, I don't know. …" seems correct.
- Similar usage of literally works: "I literally don't know." or "Literally, I don't know"
Best Answer
The issue with the second usage is that "matter-of-factly" means "in a matter-of-fact style"; it is not synonymous with "as a matter of fact". "As a matter of fact" is by itself already an adverbial phrase (meaning "actually"); tacking an additional -ly on the end to re-adverbialize it can't be right.
I'd be more inclined to express your friends' apparent intended meaning as "I don't know personally" or "I don't know directly".