You Win!

[julia.rolim]

Hi...
I want to know why is it "you win" (a game for example) and not you won.
Can you explain this to me?
Tks

[Super Sonic]

Hi julia,

I remember seeing the sentence "you won" in some fighting games.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by julia.rolim

Hi...
I want to know why is it "you win" (a game for example) and not you won.
Can you explain this to me?
Tks

It's an idiom, only used immediately at the end of a game.

[On the tennis-court] 'You win. Where shall we go for a drink after we've got changed?'

'You won'/'you've won' would be the right expression to use in any later report:

We played yesterday and you won.

We've played many times, and you've always won.

In this last case, using the present in the second clause would make the sentence into an implied prediction:

We've played many times, and you always win. [So next time we play, you'll win again.]

b

[Casiopea]

Welcome, julia.rolim.

In addition, the present tense is used to express a truth or fact; e.g., You win! That's a fact, right? Won, the past tense form, is used to talk about the past; e.g., the game is over, and you won!

Both of these You win! and You won! are perfectly acceptable. The first one expresses a fact, the second one tells us the game is over.

Does that help?