# Я уже посмотрел/смотрел этот фильм



## Xavier61

Я уже посмотрел/смотрел этот фильм
Is there a big difference between them? Which form of the verb sounds more natural in conversation?


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## Rosett

Посмотрел in the given context means fairly recent viewing, смотрел - viewing at any time in the past.


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## Sobakus

Is this a question regarding the general distinction between the two aspects in Russian (which is very strict and can be learned through reading resources found through internet or forum search) or only as applied to this particular sentence? If it's the latter, what is the context of this sentence?


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## Vadim K

They are both suitable for using in conversations. And there is not difference between them in this case.


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## Xavier61

Sobakus said:


> Is this a question regarding the general distinction between the two aspects in Russian (which is very strict and can be learned through reading resources found through internet or forum search) or only as applied to this particular sentence? If it's the latter, what is the context of this sentence?


I ask about this particular sentence because it is counterintuitive for me. I, my ignorance of the subtleties of russian language, would have expected just the opposite, from the theory:
Imperfective - Incomplete, ongoing, habitual, reversed or repeated actions
Perfective - Actions completed successfully.
So, if I watched that film once, complety and succesfully, I expected "посмотрел".


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## Maroseika

Xavier61 said:


> Imperfective - Incomplete, ongoing, habitual, reversed or repeated actions


This list is incomplete. Very often Imperfect verbs are used when there is no necessity to mention that the action is completed. It doesn't mean the action is still incomplete, just its completion is not inportant in the context and sematic stress is not on the result: 

Ты сегодня обедал? vs Ты уже пообедал?
Ты читал "Войну и мир"? vs Ты прочитал "Войну и мир"?
Ты ходил в магазин? vs Ты сходил в магазин?

Each pair tells about completed action, but the Perfect counteparts stress on the result of the action, while Imperfect ones - on the process. 
As already explained, usually Perfect verb is used in such cases to describe a recent action and the Imperfect - an action just in the past.


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## Xavier61

Rosett said:


> Посмотрел means fairly recent viewing, смотрел - viewing at any time in the past.


Thank you. It is a film I watched some years ago, so I guess смотрел is the right choice in this case.


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## Maroseika

Xavier61 said:


> It is a film I watched some years ago, so I guess смотрел is the right choice in this case.


Actually, context and sense are what dictate the aspect. You may use any aspect about the recently or long ago watched film, depending on what exactly you want express. 
For example:

- Ты смотрел этот фильм?
- Я посмотрел его еще два года назад, как только он вышел.

Here the context contains


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## Sobakus

Xavier61 said:


> I ask about this particular sentence because it is counterintuitive for me. I, my ignorance of the subtleties of russian language, would have expected just the opposite, from the theory:
> Imperfective - Incomplete, ongoing, habitual, reversed or repeated actions
> Perfective - Actions completed successfully.
> So, if I watched that film once, complety and succesfully, I expected "посмотрел".


As Maroseika said, this distinction is not about completeness. It's about viewing the event as a stretch of time as opposed to a point in time. Thus, смотрел is used when you're viewing the past as a stretch of time when the event took place without focusing on when exactly it happened. The latter is expressed with посмотрел.


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## Xavier61

Rosett said:


> Посмотрел in the given context means fairly recent viewing, смотрел - viewing at any time in the past.


Thank you, that's exactly what my Russian friend tells me "посмотрел это как будто вчера"


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## Xavier61

Maroseika said:


> Actually, context and sense are what dictate the aspect. You may use any aspect about the recently or long ago watched film, depending on what exactly you want express.
> For example:
> 
> - Ты смотрел этот фильм?
> - Я посмотрел его еще два года назад, как только он вышел.
> 
> Here the context contains


My problem with "я уже смотрел/посмотрел этот фильм" Is that the difference in meaning is not given by context, rather they seem to have a fixed, determined meaning: some time ago/ short time ago. Are there other verbs like that?  я уже слушал/послушал эту песню?


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## Xavier61

Maroseika said:


> This list is incomplete. Very often Imperfect verbs are used when there is no necessity to mention that the action is completed. It doesn't mean the action is still incomplete, just its completion is not inportant in the context and sematic stress is not on the result:
> 
> Ты сегодня обедал? vs Ты уже пообедал?
> Ты читал "Войну и мир"? vs Ты прочитал "Войну и мир"?
> Ты ходил в магазин? vs Ты сходил в магазин?
> 
> Each pair tells about completed action, but the Perfect counteparts stress on the result of the action, while Imperfect ones - on the process.
> As already explained, usually Perfect verb is used in such cases to describe a recent action and the Imperfect - an action just in the past.


I have seen before Ты читал "Войну и мир"? vs Ты прочитал "Войну и мир"? and I thought I had no problem understanding it (читал  means to read the book, some of it or all, it is not important if finished, and прочитал means read till the end) now I am in doubt.


Ты сегодня обедал? vs Ты уже пообедал?
I am not sure to see the point of this example in relation to смотрел/посмотрел этот фильм. Do you mean that
Ты сегодня обедал? = did you have lunch today? (the hour at which lunch happened is not important)
Ты уже пообедал? = did you have lunch recently?
A bit odd. Probably there are other differences that I don't see now.


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## Vovan

Рассмотрим особенности вопросов.
​Когда вы задаете вопрос "Ты (уже) сделал...?", вы предполагаете, что ваш собеседник имел возможность что-то сделать (как правило, речь о возможности, имевшейся/возникшей в некоторое последнее время).***  Если у вашего собеседника такой возможности не было, он может удивиться:
_
*А:* Ты (уже) закончил школу/университет? (уже закончил = уже успел закончить к данному моменту; have you finished school (yet)?)
*Б:* Да, (уже) полтора года назад.

*А:* Ты (уже) посмотрела этот фильм? _(уже посмотрела = уже успела посмотреть; have you seen this film (yet)?)
_*Б: *В смысле??? Когда и где я могла это сделать???  _(удивление)
_
*А: *Ты (уже) смотрела/видела этот фильм? _(уже = когда-нибудь раньше; have you (ever) seen this film?)
_*Б: *Нет, как-то не было такой возможности.  _(нет удивления)
​Несовершенная форма глагола может предпочитаться в случаях, когда действие можно и, особенно, хочется совершать многократно (например, многократно смотреть один и тот же фильм). Использование здесь совершенной формы может нести довольно странное предположение, что делать что-либо повторно не имеет большого смысла (что в отношении художественного фильма чаще всего неверно, но в нижеследующем примере вполне приемлемо):

_(Полгода назад Б приехал погостить в город к А.)
*А:* Ты (уже) посмотрел японскую выставку в нашем местном музее? _(уже посмотрел = уже успел посмотреть; have you seen the fair (yet)?)
_*Б:* Ага, как только приехал! Оно стоило того, пусть и билет был жутко дорогим!
_
​Вопрос "Ты (уже) делал...?" часто задается для того, чтобы предложить сделать что-либо вместе:

_*А: *Ты (уже) смотрела/видела этот фильм? _(уже = когда-нибудь раньше; have you (ever) seen this film?)
_*Б: *Да!
*А:* Хочешь еще раз посмотрим?
*Б: *Почему бы и нет?

_​_____________
*** _Кроме случая, когда вы выражаете удивление:_ "Как! Ты уже приготовил ужин? Когда ты успел?"_ (have you made supper already?) Часто в таких случаях логическое ударение падает на слово _"уже", _а само слово произносится по слогам: _"у-же"_.


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## Sobakus

Xavier61 said:


> My problem with "я уже смотрел/посмотрел этот фильм" Is that the difference in meaning is not given by context, rather they seem to have a fixed, determined meaning: some time ago/ short time ago. Are there other verbs like that?  я уже слушал/послушал эту песню?


That sentence is already a context in and of itself. In the sentence «когда я смотрел фильм, то чуть не заснул» the meaning is completely different – that of an ongoing process. Likewise «когда ты заснул, я уже посмотрел фильм» relays a successful completion. And the sentence «Я посмотрел его еще два года назад» certainly doesn't deal with any short stretch of time. The aspectual distinction is always context-dependent.


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## Q-cumber

Maroseika said:


> Ты сегодня обедал? vs Ты уже пообедал?
> Ты читал "Войну и мир"? vs Ты прочитал "Войну и мир"?
> Ты ходил в магазин? vs Ты сходил в магазин?
> 
> Each pair tells about completed action.....


 Not necessarily. 
-Ты читал "Войну и мир"?
- Пытался раз читать, но заснул на десятой странице.


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## Sobakus

Q-cumber said:


> Not necessarily.
> -Ты читал "Войну и мир"?
> - Пытался раз читать, но заснул на десятой странице.


-Ты прочитал "Войну и мир"?
-Прочитал, до десятой страницы.


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## Q-cumber

Sobakus said:


> -Ты прочитал "Войну и мир"?
> -Прочитал, до десятой страницы.


This would be rather a joke. If seriously, one can't answer this question affirmatively, if he hasn't finished reading the book. So such a question always implies completeness of an action.


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## Sobakus

Q-cumber said:


> This would be rather a joke. If seriously, one can't answer to this question affirmatively, if he hasn't finished reading the book. So such a question always implies completeness of an action.


The same goes for «Ты сегодня обедал?» and «Ты ходил в магазин?» – they imply completeness of action, and replying in the vein of «не дообедал» or «не дошёл» only works as a joke . Now admittedly the book example isn't so straightforward, but «Ты читал эту книгу?» is a general question without regard to completing the book, just like the English "Have you read this book?". The perfective aspect would only be used when you've already established the fact that your interlocutor has or is supposed to have read at least some part of it, with the English equivalent being "Have you finished it?".


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## Q-cumber

Sobakus said:


> The same goes for «Ты сегодня обедал?» and «Ты ходил в магазин?» – they imply completeness of action, and replying in the vein of «не дообедал» or «не дошёл» only works as a joke . Now admittedly the book example isn't so straightforward, but «Ты читал эту книгу?» is a general question without regard to completing the book, just like the English "Have you read this book?". The perfective aspect would only be used when you've already established the fact that your interlocutor has or is supposed to have read at least some part of it, with the English equivalent being "Have you finished it?".


 in my opinion, "вы читали..." rather means 'have you ever tried to read...'. 
It's very unlikely that someone wouldn't finish his lunch once he started eating or decided to return halfway going to a shop. That's why either of the options would sound 'perfective'.  Let's get back to reading and replace a book with a newspaper. Newspapers contain many different articles, some of them are interesting, some aren't worth reading and we skip them. So the question "ты (уже) читал газету сегодня? (Там есть интересная статья.)" would mean "have you started reading the newspaper, whilst " ты (уже) прочитал сегодняшнюю газету?" would obviously mean 'have you finished reading the newspaper?' (May I take it or throw away?).


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## Sobakus

Q-cumber said:


> So the question "ты (уже) читал газету сегодня? (Там есть интересная статья.)" would mean "have you started reading the newspaper, whilst " ты (уже) прочитал сегодняшнюю газету?" would obviously mean 'have you finished reading the newspaper?' (May I take it or throw away?).


To me, the imperfective option means "did you read it?" with no further elaboration. I can't come up with an example where «ты уже читал?» would mean «ты начал читать?» with a newspaper because newspapers aren't seen as continuous reading material and every article is a separate entity (it works with a book or a report that you're supposed to read), but it sure can mean «ты уже прочитал?».

What me and presumably Maroseika were trying to say is not that the imperfective _always_ refers to a completed action, but that it can, and this is understood pragmatically, not from the verb itself. Which means that the distinction is not about completeness.


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## lillygrin

Я уже посмотрел этот фильм - Means that you that you HAVE WATCHED the film and it is import that you have watched it that the action was completed and the result is important. Perhaps, you have discussed in near past that you are going to watch it.  And the asking person whant to know the result if you've done it or no.
Я уже смотрел этот фильм means you WATCHED this film in the past. When somebody whant to now you've ever whatched the film in the past.


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## lillygrin

One action is perfect посмотрел another is imperfect смотрел


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