> This example is a bit tricky to grasp (for me) especially as we are dealing with the past test first "натворил" and then the present "льёт" which I don't think would happen in English anyway "What did he do?" "He eats fish" would sound completely strange.
Well... Russian has a little different relation with tenses, so this scenario is acceptable. Let's try another example:
- Ты поел? (Did you eat?)
- Поем через 10 минут. (I'll eat in 10 minutes.)
This looks like "tense switching" also. But I think it is acceptable in english too. Because we imply:
- [Нет.] Поем через 10 минут. ([No, I didn't.] I'll eat in 10 minutes.)
So, this "tense switching" is nothing more than "shortening by dropping useless words off". Does this sound correct for you?