Breakdown of Вчера мы смотрели замечательный фильм о путешествии по морю.
вчера
yesterday
море
the sea
мы
we
смотреть
to watch
Questions & Answers about Вчера мы смотрели замечательный фильм о путешествии по морю.
Why is it смотрели and not посмотрели? What is the difference in meaning?
Russian has two aspects for most verbs: imperfective (process, repeated/ongoing action) and perfective (single, completed action as a result).
смотрели is the past tense of imperfective смотреть.
It presents the action as a process: we were watching / we spent time watching / we watched (neutral statement of what we did).посмотрели is the past tense of perfective посмотреть.
It focuses on the completion or result: we watched it (and finished it / got it over with / ended up having watched it).
In a neutral narrative about what you did yesterday, смотрели is very natural.
If you want to emphasize that you finished watching the film, or that this completed action is somehow important for what follows, you might use посмотрели:
- Вчера мы посмотрели фильм. – We watched the film (from start to finish / and now that’s done).
How is the past tense form смотрели formed from смотреть?