“Ce serait génial si Joseph venait avec nous !” why is venir in imparfait?

Question

I’m not following why this sentence is not using the lesson rule. There’s no exception in the lesson, so why is this one different? Can a note be added in the lesson?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Marcelo,
Thank you for your comment! As Maarten explained the "si" clause doesn't have to be first.
We've now added a note to explain the structure in more details.
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

It follows the rules exactly.

The si clause using the imparfait, and setting the condition, doesn’t have to come first (before the ‘conditional’ clause). Hence, the lesson misleads by referring to the conditional clause as ‘the second clause’, although it does include an example in which the ‘si’ clause is 2nd in order.

I recently noted in another answer that ‘2nd’ should at the least be replaced by ‘other’ to avoid this confusion.

It is better discussed in the Laura Lawless article linked here:

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/si-clauses-second-conditional/