[Grammar] The winners would have gotten

[Sarah-Betty]

I am not sure why the author of the sentence below used "would +have".

Isn't "would" correct?

The sentence was wtitten by a teacher.


In my school days, I heard about a swimming competition held annualy. The winners would have gotten a ticket to a tropical island.

 

[emsr2d2]

Competition entrants, if they had won, would have got a ticket to a tropical island. The underlined conditional is implied. Some people, presumably, did win and got those tickets.
(Note that I have used "would have got" because we don't use "gotten" in BrE.)

I would have written "When I was at school, I heard about an annual swimming competition. The winners could win/get/receive a ticket to a tropical island".

(I wonder if they also won a ticket back home!)

 

[Sarah-Betty]

Your detailed explanation was amazing. I fully understand it. Thank you very much.

"When I was at school, I heard about an annual swimming competition. The winners could win/get/receive a ticket to a tropical island".

Your sentences are really well-organized, straightforward and clear to follow. However, my teachers often tended to teach us to use complicated structures. Now whenver I want to write something I think I should write in the most complicated way and If I end up writing something simple, that will not fullfill my satisfaction.

(I wonder if they also won a ticket back home!)

:-D

 

[emsr2d2]

Over-complicating things is a common problem for English learners. Teachers are keen to teach those complicated structures but, in all honesty, they're only really useful so that you can recognise them when they're used by others or if you really need to write convoluted formal pieces. Everyday English is much simpler!