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

[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.