Aspect

What you will practice

• Use читал for a process and прочитал for a finished reading.
• Use делать for the process and сделать for the result.
• Keep the past gender ending on both aspects.

Explanation

читать and прочитать

читал looks at the reading while it was going on, or at a habit. Вчера я два часа читал книгу says the reading lasted two hours. It does not say the book is finished. прочитал closes it. Я прочитал книгу means I finished the book. Adding про- is the perfective in this pair. Do not use прочитал for the two-hour process.

делать and сделать

делать is the imperfective and сделать is the perfective. Я делал уроки can mean I was doing homework or I used to do it. Я сделал уроки means I got them done. A woman says делала and сделала. The aspect prefix does not remove the gender ending from the past tense lesson.

What the past ending still does

A question about the result uses the perfective. A question about the activity uses the imperfective. Ты прочитал книгу? asks whether you finished it. Ты читал книгу? asks whether you spent time reading it. Both can be true in one evening. They are not synonyms, and this lesson does not add further prefixes such as по- or пере-.

Examples

1. Вчера я два часа читал книгу.a process
2. Я прочитал книгу.a finished book
3. Я делал уроки.homework in progress
4. Я сделал уроки.homework finished
5. Ты прочитал книгу?a result question

Common mistakes

• A duration such as два часа goes with читал, not with прочитал.
• Completion goes with прочитал or сделал.