perfective vs. imperfective

[milos-dimitrov.livejournal.com]

i'm trying to better understand verb forms and i was wondering if anyone could help me understand the different implications of these questions:

Ты посмотрел/смотрел этот фильм?
Ты позвонил/звонил домой сегодня?
Ты прочитал/читал эту книгу?
На прошлой неделе он заболел/болел?

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

In all of your examples these verb forms are practically synonyms. The questions like "ты читал...?", "ты смотрел...?" usually imply asking whether you have read the entire book or viewed the entire film. However, if you want to be really hairsplitting, "ты смотрел этот фильм" does not necessarily mean that the person viewed the entire film through to the end. E.g. "Я звонил домой, но не дозвонился", "Я читал эту книгу в течение получаса и решил, что не буду ее дочитывать" etc., so the action was not really completed.

However, in other contexts the implications might be quite different. The classical example is when a student says during an oral exam: "Я учил..." which literally means that he studied the subject for a while, but not necessarily that he has really mastered it ("учил, но не выучил").

[trilbyhat.livejournal.com]

The only example where I see some real difference is 4. If he is still unwell by now, I would say заболел. If he was ill and got better later, I would say болел.

Also, посмотрел фильм does not necessarily mean a completed action: Я посмотрел фильм минут десять и ушел. Я ПОчитал эту книгу и бросил. (But: ПРОчитал means that I have read the entire book)

[alex-mashin.livejournal.com]

In questions and negative sentences in past tense, meanings of perfective and imperfective aspects are close. The imperfective aspect implies the adverb "ever", while perfective, "already".
The distinction is subtle and is in the asker's attitude rather than in the meaning: by using perfective aspect, the asker says he expects the action to be carried out, i.e., because he has previously requested it.

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

+1. In the perfective form of these questions the expectation is implied.

[aodh.livejournal.com]

I'm not a native Russian speaker, but this is how I base my choices on perfectives/imperfectives.

Ты посмотрел/смотрел этот фильм?
Did you FINISH watching the film? (Did you complete the film? Did you see it in its entirety?)
VERUS
Did you watch the film? (Did you see the film? The person asking doesn't know if you saw the film. Maybe you mentioned you were thinking about going to see it.)

Ты позвонил/звонил домой сегодня?
Did you FINISH your call home today? (The person asking knows that you were calling home today, but they don't know if you finished the call.)
VERSUS
Did you call home today? (The person asking doesn't know if you called home. Maybe you had a message telling you to call home.)

Ты прочитал/читал эту книгу?
Did you FINISH reading this book? (The action is completed and over.)
VERSUS
Did you read this book? or Were you reading this book? (The action may have happened, but the person asking doesn't know for certain. Same principle as посмотрел/смотрел.)

На прошлом неделе он заболел/болел?
This is the same as the others. Or, if it isn't, I don't know the difference. (Sorry!)


Perfective tends to indicate that the action is finished, over, completed. Imperfective means the action may have happened, or was happening. You can have two perfectives in a row (I finished reading the book, and then I watched one hour of television), but never simultaneously. You can have an imperfective and a perfective happening simultaneously (I finished reading the book while I was watching TV). You can have two imperfectives happening simultaneously (I was reading the book while I was watching TV).

Hope this helps.

[hyyudu.livejournal.com]

На прошлом неделе он заболел болел?
Not "прошлом", but "прошлой".
На прошлой неделе он заболел - he fell ill last week, i.e. he was healthy at the beginning of last week. Заболел is a perfect for falling ill, so this means he completed the action of getting to sickness from health.
На прошлой неделе он болел - he was ill last week, i.e. he spent some days last week being sick.

[olga-mukhortova.livejournal.com]

process vs result
imperfective vs perfective
смотрел vs посмотрел

Ты смотрел этот фильм? = Did you watch this film? Were you sitting in the cinema and watching this movie? I need to know something about the process

Ты посмотрел этот фильм? = Have you watched this film? I need the result of your watching. Tell me your opinion about this film. I need to know the result.

На прошлоq неделе он болел. He was in bed for the whole week. I do not know anything about him now.
На прошлоq неделе он заболел. He has started being ill last week. ads as the result now he is still ill.


etc

[windy-corner.livejournal.com]

Imperfective in your sentences is very close to 'have seen, have read', etc., i.e. it's used as factually important, general action viewed as experience.

Perfective verbs would imply certain 'marking', more specific context, we'd be supposed to be aware of some circumstances of the action. In English they would be mostly phrasal vers or verbal phrases, like 'get through, finish up, get ill', etc.

[xiefyn.livejournal.com]

Your samples do not represent a single pattern.
In 1 and 2, the difference is slight and have to do with expectations (as mentioned by some other posters). Arguably, this difference might be compared to a simple question vs. a tag question:
Ты смотрел этот фильм? = Have you seen this movie?
Ты посмотрел этот фильм? = You have seen this movie, haven't you?

In 3, 'Ты читал эту книгу?' = Have you read this book? While "Ты прочитал эту книгу?" implies that the book would have been read through.

In 4, as a narrative sentence "На прошлой неделе он заболел." does not necessarily imply recovery, while in "На прошлой неделе он болел." later recovery is implied. Anyway either of these sentences looks somewhat odd with a question mark.

[profilaktik.livejournal.com]

Ты посмотрел/смотрел этот фильм?

"посмотрел" - ты уже посмотрел этот фильм?

"смотрел" - ты когда-нибудь раньше смотрел этот фильм?


Ты позвонил/звонил домой сегодня?

"позвонил" = "звонил" в этом контексте, нет особой разницы.

Ты прочитал/читал эту книгу?
"прочитал" - ты уже закончил читать эту книгу? (Кстати, можно сказать и "прочёл")
"читал" - ты когда-нибудь читал эту книгу?

На прошлой неделе он заболел/болел?
"заболел" - он начал болеть на прошлой неделе?
"болел" - на прошлой неделе он все ещё болел.

Надеюсь, что стало понятнее :)

[windy-corner.livejournal.com]

If one asks Ты читал эту книгу? (By the way, it may well be Ты уже читал эту книгу?) one is interested whether you know what's it about, if you're familiar with the ideas, etc.

The question Ты прочитал эту книгу? would be natural in the situation when the book is either physically present in the context, or, e.g., there's some written reference to it in front of the speaker.

Ты звонил домой сегодня? The speaker is asking if any telephone communication with 'home' took place. )))
Ты позвонил домой сегодня? Sounds like a reminder, as the person was going or promised to make that phonecall.

На прошлой неделе он болел. He was unwell last week. It's a finished condition in the past.
На прошлой неделе он заболел. He got ill last week, i.e., it was the beginning of his condition.

[paintmylover.livejournal.com]

All of these explanations are wonderful, as I just reviewed this in my beginning Russian course. It helps me to know when to use it when I slip in "already finished" before the verb. If it makes sense, then use perfective. If not, ie. if you are asking if someone simply started writing a letter, and not completed it, you would use imperfective.

[windy-corner.livejournal.com]

While inerviewing people for the job of teaching Russian as foreign language, we used to make a joke with a colleague of mine. We'd ask them about teaching verbal aspects, they'd go about a finised and unfinished action. Then with an innocent look one of us would ask 'Вы читали "Анну Каренину?" The candidate'd look puzzled: Well, yes. Why? - А на какой странице вы остановились? And what page did you quit at? )))
So, it's a good explanation, but a very restricted one. There's more into verbal aspects! )))

[oryx_and_crake]

Very funny, ha-ha.

[old-radist.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I didn't understand the joke.
The answer "Yes" definitely does not mean, that he did not finish the book. Therefore the next question "what page did you quit at?" does not make sence at all.

[merry1978.livejournal.com]

That is because perfect/imperfect in Russian DOES NOT mean finished/unfinished action )))

[old-radist.livejournal.com]

I know as I am native speaker. °-) (Let say, does not allways mean)

But nevertheless I still do not understand the joke... Could you explain it in Russian please?

[windy-corner.livejournal.com]

The candidate stated that Imperfective verbs only refer to actions that are not completed. So читал Каренину would mean then 'didn't complete reading'. That's all.

oryx-and-crake, sorry if the joke wasn't funny. I only meant to illustrate the usage.

[old-radist.livejournal.com]

Yesss!