Conditional present

Question

I have just answered the question below incorrectly. My understanding was that the second part of the statement was conditional present but your answer below shows (I think) the imparfait of venir? What am I not getting?

Accepted Answer

If I knew how to sing, I would be a singer. -- Si je savais chanter, je serais chanteur.
In this kind of conditional sentence, the verb in the si-clause is in the imperfect (just as in English) and the verb in the main clause is in conditional present (just as in English).

Answer

Thank you for this but the correct answer to the question says

Ce serait génial si Joseph venait avec nous !

I thought venait was imparfait and not conditional so I put the conditional viendrait which was marked wrong. That’s what I’m struggling to understand. Is venait conditional ?

Thank you.

Answer

Hi Angela,"Si on gagnait au loto, on achèterait une maison.-> Here you see that in French, si is followed by a verb in L'Imparfait (gagnait), while the second clause uses Le Conditionnel Présent (achèterait)."You could just as well have followed the format above as per the lesson:-Ce serait génial si Joseph venait avec nous --> Si Joseph venait avec nous ce serait génial.  This is the very format that you are querying?Forgive me, but you seem to be tying yourself in knots for no good reason???Bonne journéeJim

Answer

Ok. Many thanks. A

Answer

Venait --> 3rd person singular, imperfect tense, Viendrait --> 3rd person singular, conditionalOtherwise, you simply follow the lesson: in the si-clause use the imperfect, in the main clause use the conditional.