aktuala

The headline false friend of the whole language, and it has a page here because it is worth one. Aktuala means current, present-day, of this moment. It does not mean actual in the English sense of real-as-opposed-to- apparent, and the adverb aktuale means currently and never actually.

La aktuala situacio estas malfacila. - The current situation is difficult.

The word you wanted for English actual is efektiva, or the adverb efektive. The false friends article makes this the first entry on its list and the Reta Vortaro's own note opens by calling aktuala an eminent false friend, which is about as blunt as a dictionary gets.

Why it is the dangerous one rather than merely the wrong one. Most mistakes produce a sentence that stops the reader. This one does not. Mi parolas pri la aktuala prezo is a perfectly well-formed sentence either way, so nobody queries it, and the reader walks off with the price that is charged today when you meant the price that is really charged. Invisible errors are the expensive kind.

The honest caveat, because precision is the point of the word: the dictionary does record some English-influenced senses alongside the main one. It does not bless them. It advises a more exact word, which is the same advice put politely.

Where it earns its keep. Aktuala is the natural adjective for news, debate and anything with a shelf life: aktualaj novaĵoj, aktuala temo, la aktuala numero de la revuo. Esperanto magazines have run columns called Aktualaĵoj for a century, and the sense there is exactly the things happening now.

Against its neighbours. Nova is new, which is about age. Moderna is modern, which is about era. Aktuala is about the present moment and nothing else: a hundred-year-old question can be aktuala again this week, and a brand-new gadget nobody is discussing is nova but not aktuala.