Grammar Girl here, back in September, we talked about switching verb tenses.

It was too big a topic to cover in one episode, so we just talked about one aspect.

Now a listener named Steve has written in with a question that has us asking once again,

how do you get different verb tenses in one sentence to play together nicely?

Steve's question was triggered by this sentence.

It's been a long time since the song has percolated through the air after the puck

slips into the net.

It's been a long time since the song has percolated through the air after the puck slips

into the net.

Steve writes, is the verb slip in the correct tense given that I'm using has percolated

earlier in the sentence?

I'm not sure if it should be slips or slipped.

Steve's sentence is tricky because it has three clauses with verb tenses that need to work

together.

We'll break down the problem by comparing verb tenses in just one independent and one

dependent clause at a time, instead of trying to decide for all three at once.

We talk about independent and dependent clauses in episode 136.

The clauses that make up Steve's sentence are like nested Russian dolls.

The smallest clause is at the end, the puck slips into the net.

By itself it's an independent clause, but in this sentence it follows the word after,

which makes it a dependent clause.

Now let's consider a bigger chunk of the sentence, one nested Russian doll out, if you will.

...