Бабушка открыла старый дневник и читала вслух свои школьные воспоминания.

to read

Breakdown of Бабушка открыла старый дневник и читала вслух свои школьные воспоминания.

• открыть: to open
• и: and
• старый: old

Questions & Answers about Бабушка открыла старый дневник и читала вслух свои школьные воспоминания.

In открыла and читала, what does the ending -ла tell us?

The ending -ла shows:

• Past tense
• Singular
• Feminine gender

So открыла and читала both mean “(she) opened / (she) was reading,” and the -ла matches the feminine noun бабушка (“grandmother”).

If the subject were masculine (дедушка, “grandfather”), the verbs would be открыл, читал.

Why is it открыла but читала? Why different aspects for “opened” and “was reading”?

Russian uses perfective and imperfective aspects:

• открыла (from открыть, perfective) – a single, completed action: “she opened (once, finished).”
• читала (from читать, imperfective) – a process / ongoing action: “she was reading / read (for some time).”

So the sentence shows:

1. She finished the act of opening the diary;
2. Then she spent some time reading the memories aloud.

If you said прочитала instead of читала, it would stress that she finished reading them completely, not just that she was reading.