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Mickey Mouse 8241 Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

could or would?!

"If everyone got into a fight or trouble, her parents would be notified immediately, and the school’s staff (could/would) temporarily expel her or only tell her off. "

Could or would?! which one is correct?! I am confused about using them.
  

Top answer

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6 Answers
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Your sentence doesn't make much sense, but to answer your question, "would" denotes a stronger possibility than "could."
Emotion: wink
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Here is the full sentences:

"The school I went to in the 1990s (in the nineteen-nineties) was very strict. If everyone got into a fight or trouble, her
parents would be notified immediately, and the school’s staff could/would temporarily expel her or only tell her off. Any fooling around and mockery in the class were strictly forbidden, and the teachers had to observed and reported ev
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Mickey Mouse 8241the school’s staff could/would temporarily expel her
could - They had the power to expel a student. (Doesn't say that they always used that power.)
would - They expelled the student.

(Same contrast for "tell her off".)

Because of the choice "expel" or "tell off", could seems more appropriate to my ea
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Mickey Mouse 8241If everyone got into a fight or trouble, [...]
the teachers had to observed and reported every student’s behavior and progress to the senior staff.
If anyone got into a fight ...
...the teachers had to observe and report ...
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Thanks, According to the following linke, fight can be countable , could I ask you why you use 'fight' instead of 'a fight'?!
http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/fight_2
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It was a slip that I corrected - unfortunately not before you spotted it. Sorry.

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