Part III. I oversimplified the thing in the Part I. There are verbs whose perfective doesn't refer to a particular 'point', but rather takes the action as a whole 'event', even though it has some continuation in time. E.g. "I read the inscription" - it took some time, a few seconds at least. Or if that was a book, even days. 'A point' was inaccurate. A better visual representation would be Perfective, the whole action 'packed' as an event: (-) Imperfective, action spread over time with unclear borders; . . ..__.. . . Often some point has extra attention of speaker though, e.g. starting moment, or the moment of completion. And because of this we have two ways to say "let's go for movies". Давай пойдем в кино? Давай сходим в кино? both are equally common. Я пошёл. I went. --- here attention is drawn to the decision to go, and to the starting point of movement. You stood up and start moving. Я сходил. I went --- "went to there, did whatever you planned to do there and returned back". Perfective here expresses success. When you went to the theater, it draws attention to the whole experience, to how you enjoyed the play. Both perfectly suit for a proposal for what to do this evening! The only difference is the speaker focused on 'decision to go', on how we dress and go out - and the speaker thinking about a way to spend an evening: about our impressions on the way to there, in the movie theater, on the way back and after. Я пришёл. I came. --- this one is clear.

Emi, more or less. Perfective is an 'event'. I picture it for myself as a point in time. Often (not always) it is possible to ask 'when it happened?' and have an answer like "15:45". Examples: Я подпрыгнул. I jumped up. Я чихнул. I sneezed. --- very quick, momentary action. Я начал. I began/started. --- starting moment of an action. When we use Imperfective, we don't think of clear borders in time. It is either progressive as "I was reading" - when you say this, you think of a moment, but 'reading' extends both to the past and future from this moment. habitual as "I went to school". I imagine imperfective as a line, whose ends are somewhat unclear and vague. That is, if we denote 'now' as ☼, then past and future perfectives are . ☼ and ☼ . and imperfectives are _ ☼ and ☼ _ Present imperfective would be a line under the ☼ symbol.

Yes, correct. Imperfective: Я делал - I did (several times maybe) Я делаю - I do (regularly), I am doing (in process) Я буду делать - I will do, I will be doing Perfective: Я сделал - I have done (finished) Я сделаю - I will do it and I will finish it. I will have done.

P.S. no, actually imperfective action may have (or not) ended by now: Когда мне было 8 я любила мороженое. When I was 8, I loved ice-cream. And perfective action may have (or not) a result in now: Я полюбила мороженое , когда мне было 8 лет. I developed a taste for ice-cream when I was 8 years old. The difference: "полюбила" is a single event. A moment when you Start loving something.

Part II. Even when you can picture 'perfective' and 'imperfective' the same way as I do (as an 'event' and 'something continuing'), it doens't explain, when to use which one! Because if you read a book yesterday, then for sure you _were_ reading it. For example, imperfective means, among other things, "having now expereince of doing somethign in past (once or many times)", as in "I saw this movie". Ты читал эту книгу? Have you (ever) read this book? - are you familiar with it? Perfective has a shade of 'success': Ты прочитал эту книгу? Have you (already) read this book? - I know you were reading it, or planned to read it. I'm curious as to whther this has happened finally.