The phrase "actual gift" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to emphasize the reality or authenticity of a gift, distinguishing it from something that may be perceived as a gift but is not.
Example: "I was surprised to receive an actual gift instead of just a card for my birthday."
Alternatives: "real gift" or "genuine gift".
Before you absent-mindedly grab a chain-store gift card off the rack, why not consider an actual gift?
But by the beatific looks of the dozen juniors and seniors gathered in Room 138 during third period for the unveiling ceremony, one could be forgiven for thinking the actual gift was a library wing or a cafeteria.
My personal rule is to add to any gift certificate 20percentt of what I was prepared to spend on an actual gift -- a penalty for my lack of imagination.
A small group of teen-agers argued about whether it was appropriate to introduce children to the concept of police brutality, and ogled Evan Desmond Yee's "Shop of Dreams," a mirror-image replica of the museum's actual gift shop (where visitors could purchase branded Museum of Capitalism totes and T-shirts, and also computer-shaped stress balls and elegantly packaged coal) but with barren shelves.
We do not find correlations between actual gift behavior and measures of empathy-driven pro-social behavior used in social science.
–An Accenture survey shows that 40% of people surveyed indicate that they prefer receiving a gift card to an actual gift.
First, none of these examples qualify as actual gifts.
It led us to actual gifts — see the Get for the glamour of gifting in bulk — and to emotional gifts that reveal themselves, elegantly and poignantly, over time (see Allen Shawn's excerpt from his memoir "Twin").
Fashion is just the place to learn, or be reminded, that those in possession of the most prodigious egos are generally those in possession of the fewest actual gifts.
He advised filling seasonal down time with tying up loose financial ends -- buying the last of that tax-deductible equipment, and, in lieu of actual gifts, contributing to charity in the name of clients.
However, the footnote adds that the account is "based on an actual gifts [sic] or a combination of gifts".
