problem with would have been

[bartholomew]

Hi guys

am Polsih and do not quite understand the following:

one guy saying yesterday: We went to a camp yesterday and there was Tracy...She would have been a knock out anywhere.

I got the meaning but do not know why one has to say like that. Is: she was a real knock-out the same as she would have been a real knock out?

why the would have...Does it mean/imply something else?

[Clanad]

The key to the answer is the use of the modifier anywhere. This additional word implies that, although the speaker finds Tracy to be exceptionally good looking, he wants to imply that she would be found so anywhere... not just in his view, in other words...

[Quizmonster]

You're forgetting the " anywhere", Bartholomew. The idea is that - at a camp - it was perhaps surprising to find such an attractive girl, whereas it might not have been so unusual at a nightclub, for example. In other words, there are places where one expects to find beautiful women and camps may not be among such places.

[Quizmonster]

Good heavens, C! Your response seems to have taken an awfully long time to appear on the page. It most definitely was not here when I started to type my reply and yet there are 14 minutes between their recorded times.

[Clanad]

Happens to me a lot Q... must be a technical explanation, but somethings in life are just inexplicable...