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I heard a sentence:

If you are staying, we will play a table game.

Is this somehow still correct, or is it wrong? How can this be grammatical as a valid English conditional sequence of paired clauses?

I ask because I can unfortunately find no standard example of Zeroth, First, or Second Conditionals routinely taught to ESL students with exactly this particular combination of tensed verbs, aspects, and modal verbs.

Why do native speakers not follow those rules we are taught?

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    Perhaps it's the 276th conditional. Or the 278th. The simplistic breakdown typically presented in ESL courses is so far short of the mark that one wonders why it hasn't been binned. See tchrist's answer for some examples. // To my ears, the sentence is perfectly acceptable. Commented Apr 19, 2025 at 21:27
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    English does not have “numbered conditionals” — at least, not unless you number them in the thousands! Commented Apr 19, 2025 at 21:27
  • Quora includes your type of sentence in an enlarged set of first conditional sentences. But ideally, the whole classification schema needs replacing. Commented Apr 19, 2025 at 21:35
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    You should ask the converse question: why do ESL classes not teach you conditionals that native speakers use frequently and consider grammatical? Commented Apr 19, 2025 at 22:37
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    "If you're buying, I'll have a double." Commented Apr 20, 2025 at 1:38

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In this forum we don't judge the correctness of sentences by reference to ESL books that offer gross simplifications (although proper grammars, academic papers, etc, are OK).

So here are some real-world examples:

"If you are purchasing, we will transfer your sale proceeds across to your purchase file so that we can use the funds." (A seller's guide to conveyancing, Howard and Over, UK.)

"...if you are buying a vehicle through us, we will apply the trade-in value to save you tons of dough on taxes" (FAQ, CarDoor website, Canada)

"If you are looking for prenatal care, we will work hard to connect you to another provider in the community, such as a midwife or a doctor, who can provide you with full prenatal services whether or not you have a health card." (Planned Parenthood Toronto, Canada)

"If you are using Fastlane, we will also use your Personal Information and payment method details to determine whether the payment you are making with a participating Partner or Merchant is authorized by you and likely to be successfully authorized by the payment method you choose to use when you make a purchase using details from your Fastlane profile." (PayPal Privacy Statement, PayPal website, US.)

"If you are not getting pension credit, we will add together any income, including earnings if you work and any state benefits that you and your partner (if you have one) have." (Ealing Council website, UK)

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  • The first conditional sentence is structured << [If] + [N] +[present continuous construction]{,} + [N] + [periphrastic will + bare infinitive future-indicating construction] + ... >>. It might help to show some of the 200+ possibilities in general formulaic form. Commented Apr 22, 2025 at 14:43

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