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

[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!