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  1. Convention: R^n is always assumed to carry the Euclidean topology, unless stated otherwise.
  2. Convention: R^n is always assumed to carry the Euclidean topology, unless otherwise stated.

Which sentence is (more) correct?

Leo
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  • The first one sounds nicer to me, so I'm rooting for 1. – Leo Aug 06 '11 at 21:48
  • I prefer to 1st one. Actually I have never seen an example of second one. We know otherwise can be used as a sentence adverb. It obviously can be placed in the end of a sentence. So the second one is correct as well. – Jiancheng Zou Mar 14 '13 at 01:27

2 Answers2

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Both are all right, but from the following Google Ngram the phrase unless otherwise stated is preferred overall:

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You could, however, just choose to use whichever sounds more natural. Although one is more used, if you are writing and want to use a phrase, use it if it matches your narrative voice. Both are okay because, in English, the adverb can go before or after the verb. The exact placement varies by sentence.

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    thank you very much. Hmm, never heard of Google Ngram, very interesting. Umm, what does "smoothing" in the program mean? – Leo Aug 06 '11 at 21:50
  • (Please use the @ tag so I know you've left a comment) The "smoothing" in Google Ngrams is a statistical analysis tool. You can read about it here. –  Aug 06 '11 at 21:58
  • Will use @. As for voting, I can't at the moment, cause I have only 1 point. And to accept an answer, I have to wait 15mins... Thanks anyway – Leo Aug 06 '11 at 21:59
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If you don't see how the second one works, maybe think of otherwise as the adverb in the sentence. If you were to say "She spoke calmly", it would also make sense to say "she calmly spoke". That's how I see it anyway.

Sven Yargs
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Em Gord
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