OBJECTIVES: To define the term ‘usually’ in order to ascertain potential pitfalls in its translation in any future target language. METHODS: This posed a particular issue in translation of the ADSC (Activities of Daily Living Inventory) in which the term appears 28 times in the form of either ‘usual’ or ‘usually’. Discussion with the client confirmed the desired and contextual meaning of the term for this instrument, with additional guidance from clinicians, and the issue was discussed extensively with linguists for all 31 languages in this particular study. RESULTS: After in-depth discussion between ICON Language Services and the client, it was agreed that a more specific definition of ‘usually’ should be checked and applied to the translations so as to avoid risk in incorrect data collection and potentially causing offence to the target population. Concern was raised that the term could be mistaken for ‘normally’, which could lead to specifying what is ‘normal’ vs ‘abnormal’, i.e. making a judgement about the behaviour of the subject. We ensured that the term ‘usually’ was not translated as ‘normally’, did not imply ‘normal’ vs ‘abnormal’ behaviour and rendered the concept of frequency present in the source term ‘usual’. CONCLUSIONS: In this project, it was vital that the term ‘usually’ should carry a wholly descriptive value, meaning that the phenomenon in question occurs with high frequency or by habit/custom. This should not be confused with the concept ‘normally’, which can carry a prescriptive connotation implying an underlying rule/order. To avoid any ambiguous or incorrect translation of the word ‘usually’, it is strongly advised that this be clearly defined from the start and checked throughout the linguistic validation process. Discussion between the client and linguistic staff reveals the importance of close collaboration in resolving terminology issues and improving data integrity through the conceptual equivalence of translations.