Hi,
How would you translate “otherwise” in this sentence? Or what does it mean here?
“A small group of young people has been living on an otherwise uninhabited tropical island as part of an experiment in survival”
In most contexts, “otherwise” means that something is true except for one or a couple small exceptions. It is used to point out the one thing that could make the “rule” untrue. In this sentence, it has the same meaning, but I will break it down for you:
The group of people is living on the uninhabited island. There are no other people living there. This is the “rule”. The exception is that these people are going to inhabit it, or live on it. Because they are living on it, the island can technically no longer be considered uninhabited. However, for some more context, the sentence describes the island as otherwise uninhabited to let you know that there are no other people living on the island. The population of the island consists only of the small group of people participating in the experiment.
Hope this helps!
