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There is a statement on my homepage, and I'm not sure the correct order, or if it really matters.

"Your first impression only happens once."

Now should that be flipped around? i.e. ... happens only once.

Is there a correct order here?

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    Do we say impressions happen? – Edwin Ashworth Jan 19 '18 at 17:46
  • For context, it's in relation to when someone sees's or hears about you for the first time, i.e. an author or speaker and the reader/viewer comes across your work or watches your video. – v15 Jan 19 '18 at 17:48
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    There is a point here. I'll use a more familiar and less contentious (ignoring the truth of the statement) example. 'Lightning only strikes once.' The 'logical / disambiguating' place to position the limiting modifier 'only' is after 'once', the next best place being directly after the verb – purists could argue that its placed next to 'lightning' licenses the reading 'lightning only strikes once, but it may short-circuit several times before that' or even 'Only lightning strikes once'. But we all know what the idiomatic choice is. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 19 '18 at 21:00

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