"Nie mogę tego przeczytać."

Translation: I cannot read this.

[conor.raff]

Ok, so I looked up the difference between imperfect and perfect. Up till now we've been looking only at imperfect verbs, where the "doing" is continuous (whether it be habitual or "right now"), and emphasis is on the continuity of the doing.

With the imperfect, the emphasis on "getting it done".

My grammar book gives the example or robię (imp.) and zrobię (pf.).

In the past tense:
robiłem (I did/was doing) vs. zrobiłem (I did/got done)
In the future tense:
będę robił (I will do/will be doing) vs. zrobię (I will do/get done)

OK, lets compare the two forms of this exercises sentence sentence in light of these examples:

IMPERFECT: Nie mogę tego czytać (I can't read this/I can't be reading this)
e.g. its boring; I'm tired; I need to be doing something else right now

PERFECT: Nie mogę tego przeczytać (I can't read this/I can't get this read)
e.g. its too long for me to imagine ever finishing it (cf. War and Peace); it's difficult and I can't imagine me having the patience to finish it; I have a plan to read some today (not the whole thing) but other things keep distracting me from achieving my plan

With all the above in mind, would the following not be a valid English translation of the sentence:

"I can't get this read." ?
(where read - pronounced "red" - is the past participle form of the verb "to read")

[immery]

First image that this sentence creates in my mind is trying to read doctor writing. I keep reading it but cannot decipher it

[conor.raff]

In other words, you can't get it read! (lol)

[mihxal]

The subject has been discussed earlier: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/12975268

[conor.raff]

yes, very good explanation... its funny how the same verb pair came up!

so, would you agree mihxal that this is a valid translation:

"I can't get this read."

[mihxal]

I'm not certain what "get read" means but translation proposed in this thread "read through" seems good.

[conor.raff]

example: "I can't get this read." (where read - pronounced "red" - is the past participle form of the verb "to read")

The past participle is the form used in:
I have done it.
They had already arrived.
I will have achieved it.
I will have read* it.

infinitves (Eng.) and their past particples Eng.)

REGULAR

to work - worked;
to jump - jumped;

IRREGULAR
to do - done;
to make - made;
to drive - driven;
to go - gone;
to read - read; **

**very confusing because its the same spelling, but different pronunciation = "red"

[warfreak2]

I don't expect a native speaker would ever say "I can't get this read" instead of "I can't read this".

If somebody said "I can't get this read", the only plausible meaning to me would be that they can't get it read by other people. For example, a writer trying unsuccessfully to reach an audience. Even then, "I can't get people to read this" would be more natural.

[PVLSANS]

Czy "nie umiem tego czytać" jest niepoprawne? I jeśli tak, to dlaczego?

[Jellei]

Może nie jest zupełnie niemożliwe, ale odniesienie się do samego procesu "czytania" zamiast do skutku w postaci "przeczytania całego tekstu" jest co najmniej dziwne.

Maybe it's not completely impossible, but referring to the sole process of "reading" instead of the result of "reading the whole text" is at least weird.

[JanKLinde]

It might be written in Chinese, so most of us wouldn't be able to read a single word...

[Jellei]

I'd still use "przeczytać", I can't 'succesfully read' even one word.

[Kristine466318]

Trudno zrozumieć co mówiący ma na myśli, czy "nie wiem jak to przeczytać" - I don't know how to read this. Może jakby to było napisane jakimś całkiem innym alfabetem, ale wtedy też można powiedzieć "nie mogę tego przeczytać, "
(bo jest napisane cyrylicą, albo chińskimi znakami).