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"Дженни посмотрела фильм и легла спать."
Translation:Jenny watched a movie and went to bed.
32 Comments
Just to make sure, since this is perfective, does this mean she watched the entire movie and then afterwards, she fell asleep? I am thinking it definitely doesn't mean that she fell asleep while watching a movie.
I'm not sure if she watched the <entire> movie, but it is for sure that she went to bed afterwards and not during watching a movie.
OK so, if I wanted to indicate that she fell asleep while/during watching the movie would I say this?
Дженни смотрела фильм и легла спать
It's better to say "Дженни смотрела фильм и уснула/заснула"
"ложиться спать" usually means "going to bed" (naturally), for "to fall asleep" use "засыпать"
Thank you.
But you've offered two options (уснула/заснула) and now I'm confused. It's not your fault, I'm... not very smart.
By the way, thank you for all of your other answers to all of my other questions on various threads!
The verbs are synonyms:
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уснуть is also used in figurative meanings. Заснуть is primarily used for people and animals. It would be odd to say "Город заснул" (though, such use is still found).
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уснуть, I think, has a slightly positive connotation. If you think it is bad that someone fell asleep, both can be used but "заснуть" would be more popular (I saw examples of both).
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currently, they enjoy about the same popularity.
IF you mean that she went asleep, you'd say «заснула». Of course, the sentence with "смотрела фильм и заснула" would still be rather a theoretical example than a real utterance because this is not a common way to say that someone fell asleep while watching a film (more like a vague cause-effect implication).
Thank you.
(There are going to be lots of errors here, sorry)
Ah ok. So "went to bed" doesn't really (necessarily) mean went to sleep. I could say:
She went to bed and read a book (Она легла спать и читала книгу)[probably very wrong]
Maybe?
But if I truly wanted to say she fell asleep while watching a movie would I say:
во время фильма она заснула
Er... «легла спать» means she went to bed while fully determined to sleep. :) The lights would probably be off, she would get under the duvet, close her eyes and try to sleep.
Yes, your wording works, though it sort of implies she was not in control (if she watched the film from her tablet or on her PC, it would be a bit weird, since these sound as if "she" were the person playing the video).
I apparently can't reply below a certain level. But geez, I got EVERYTHING wrong, didn't I! By the way, I really appreciate how you're answering here. You're not feeding me the answers, but giving me clues (and I'm screwing them up!). Of course that could just be for your own entertainment ;)
And I'm literally, what was the phrase I saw in the comments earlier? под столом? I'm laughing, thank you, under the table. OK, so. (this will hurt your sensibilities)
She went to bed and read a book:
она лежала в кровати и читала книгу
is that better?
To correct the other, is it enough to just do this?
она заснула смотреть фильм
I'm sure I'm missing something. or a lot - there's so much to learn. Sorry.
"лежать в кровати" is, essentially, to be in bed. If you want to stress that she got into bed and THEN read a book, use perfective лечь («легла в кровать / в постель»)
Заснула смотреть фильм does not work simply because "to fall asleep" is not a sort of a verb used with infinitives to state a purpose or something. In English "I fell asleep to watch a movie" is grammatically correct but does not make much sense.
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I was thinking "maybe" laid down to sleep is correct. Yet if the point of the sentence is to teach perfective than the translation makes sense.
Well, we can use it if it sounds OK in English. In Russian «лечь спать» means to go to bed with the intention of sleeping (i.e. switch the light off, lie down, get under the duvet, and close your eyes—the result is not guaranteed but it is the best you can do).
I think it's fine (maybe slightly unusual in this sentence) except the past tense of "lie down to sleep" is "lay", not "laid".
When expressing sequential events in Russian, you use the perfective aspects of the verb (which is what was used here). She watched the movie and then she went to bed afterwards. You could say she was going to bed and falling asleep at the same time, but that would require the imperfective aspect of the verbs - она смотрела фильм и (одновременно) засыпала. If you used the imperfective for one but the perfective for another, it would mean the imperfective action was interrupted - She watching watching the movie and fell asleep - Она смотрела фильм а заснула. I know I am using a different verb than what was used in the exercise but that's because like you pointed out it would look weird for her to be watching a movie and lying down to sleep at the same time (though I guess it's not outside the realm of possibility if she needs an audiovisual sleeping aid >_>).
Wouldn't "Jenny finished watching the movie and went to bed" be ok since the verb is perfective?
Does Russian past tense differentiate between "was doing" and "did"? To me, "did" implies that you finished the task and "was doing" implies that you may not have finished the task.
Yes, this is portrayed through perfective and imperfective aspects of a verb (99% of verbs have both).
That is not quite correct: 99.5% of the verbs have one aspect. Biaspectual verbs like атаковать are fairly rare.
Sorry, what I meant is that the verbs tend to have a perfective or imperfective "version", in which case атаковать (from my perspective) would be in the 1% >_>. But yes I wasn't too clear.
That's what I thought but I've noticed that Duolingo will often accept both "do" and "doing" for present tense verbs and "did" or "was doing" for past tense verbs, even if they're in the imperfective form.
Shady_arc, your comments and replies have helped me greatly over the last few months. How different world this sentence be if one was to use смотрела rather than посмотрела? I'm still getting used to prefixes and just curious on the difference.
Imperfective verbs (line смотреть) do not really work for actions in a sequence, i.e. it does not sound like anything if you say it like that. The impression will be that she went to bed while she was already watching the movie (that wording has its uses, of course).
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"Jenny watched a film and went to sleep" was marked wrong. Why? "Film" in American English is interchangeable with "movie" and "спать" literally means "sleep."
