> The word you're looking for is "current".

"Actual" is a synonym for "current".

Sure, it's a synonym, but usage dictates it's incorrect to say "actual President" when you mean "current President", whereas "actual situation" is okay. The original context the writer is most certainly French where actuel means current, however the usage generates a false cognate.

no it's not?

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/actual

In french, it's actually (!) more common to say "actuel" than "courrant". So I'm guessing the OP speaks french as a native language...?

Albeit spending most of my time speaking/thinking English, I'd have to confirm that French is my mother tongue. Well, swiss French, but close enough ;)

And I meant to write about the current president indeed.

Small world! Swiss french here too. (grew up in Geneva)

I'm not a native English speaker (nor French), but other English dictionaries have "existing now or current" as one of the definitions for "actual":

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/actual?show=0&...

http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0007040#m_en...

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/actual

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=actual&tbs=dfn:...

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/actual

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/Dictionary...

Speaking as a professional translator, let me encourage you to look beyond dictionary definitions - each definition in a dictionary means that the word in question can stand in a particular role. A true pair of synonyms would coincide in meaning in all situations. Dictionaries can be very dangerous tools indeed in unsure hands. I know I've injured myself with them repeatedly, as has every translator at some time or another.

"Actual" is a common mistranslation from French or German. As a rule of thumb, actuel/aktuell can almost always be translated as "current". "Actual" in English means something more like "true".

In the phrase "actual situation", "actual" does take on the Latin meaning of "existing now or current", but you can see that today's gloss of "true" also fits there: "true situation" works pretty well to describe the actual situation. Although come to think of it, "actual situation" sounds little odd to my ear (although that is a very dangerous metric, because everything can sound odd if you think too hard about it).

It's one of those instances where a synonym isn't actually (ha!) equivalent, and doesn't quite work the same way in the sentence. In this case, 'actual President' would contrast with some fake President running around, whereas 'current President' contrasts with the upcoming President.