the entire film/book

[IlyaTretyakov]

If I say:

"I read the book." or "I watched the film."

Does it mean that I read the entire book or that I watched the entire film?

If it does, how should I say to emphasise that I started reading the book or watching the film but haven't finished the entire book or film yet? Will this help: "I was reading the book." "I was watching the film."?

If it doesn't, how should I say that I read the entire book or that I watched the entire film? Will this help: "I've read the book." "I've watched the film."?

Thanks

 

[jutfrank]

The implication is there, yes.

Any suggestions for how to express what you really mean would depend completely on context, so we can't give you a definitive answer. Here are some possibilities:

I read the book. Well, most of it, anyway.
I read the first half of the book.
I saw most of the film but I missed the end.
...

If you tell us why you want to say what you want to say, and provide some context, we'll be able to give you a more useful answer.

 

[emsr2d2]

If I say no colon here "I read the book no full stop here" or "I watched the film no full stop here", does it mean that I read the entire book or and that I watched the entire film?

If it does, how what should I say to emphasise that I started reading the book or watching the film but haven't finished the entire book or film them yet? Will this help: Would these work? "I was reading the book." "I was watching the film." no question mark here

If it doesn't, how should can I say express that I read the entire book or that I watched the entire film? Will this help: Would these work? "I've read the book." "I've watched the film." no question mark here

Thanks.

Note my corrections above.

Your original sentences would be taken to mean that you read the entire book/watched the entire film. If you've started but not finished, I'd use these:

1. I've started [reading] that book. (You're in the process of reading it.)
2. I started that book but didn't finish it. (You started it at some point in the past but, for some reason, gave up on it.)
3. I'm reading that book. (You're in the process of reading it.)

4. I've started [watching] that film. (At some point, you watched some of it but you haven't watched the rest.)
5. I started watching that film but [explanation]. (You started watching it but didn't finish it. You would normally explain why.)

Unlike sentence 3 above, the present continuous would only work with a film if you were actually watching it as you said/wrote those words.

 

[IlyaTretyakov]

Your original sentences would be taken to mean that you read the entire book/watched the entire film.

If I say: "I watched those films." without any previous and following context, will it necessarily mean that I watched the entire films?
I want to know if I can use simple tense with things that I didn't complete.
For example "I read the book." (not the entire book)

 

[emsr2d2]

No. As I said in my first response, saying "I read the book" or "I watched the film" would immediately be taken to mean that you read/watched them in their entirety.

Please look again at one of the corrections I made in my previous response. When you quote a sentence, but the surrounding sentence continues after the quotation marks, we do not include the full stop inside the quotation marks. Don't use a colon after "If I say" either.

 

[jutfrank]

The past simple aspect would very likely give the implication that you read the entire book. If you didn't, you'd give extra context (which I've tried to show in my suggestions in post #2) to make that clear.

Having said that, there could be contexts where no such qualification is necessary:

A: What did you do in the waiting room while waiting for your appointment?
B: I read War and Peace.

It's obvious (I hope) that I didn't read the whole novel. The verb read expresses only the action of reading.

 

[Rover_KE]

I see you posted the same thread in WordReference Forums.

Please do not post the same question simultaneously to more than one forum. Doing so wastes our valuable time. Instead, post your question to one forum and wait for replies. If you're not satisfied with those replies, you can try another forum, but please indicate in your thread that you've already asked the same question elsewhere (provide a link), and outline why you were not satisfied with the answers you received already.

(teechar)

 

[IlyaTretyakov]

No. As I said in my first response, saying "I read the book" or "I watched the film" would immediately be taken to mean that you read/watched them in their entirety.

I had asked: "If I say: "I watched those films." without any previous and following context, will it necessarily mean that I watched the entire films?". You replied: "no". And then you provided a sentence which meant: "yes".
That doesn't make much sense at all.

 

[5jj]

emsr2d2's 'No' was a response to your:

I want to know if I can use simple tense with things that I didn't complete.
For example "I read the book." (not the entire book)

 

[Tdol]

People lie and claim to have read/seen things in their entirety that language cannot protect against. Tell the truth about what you have read and seen and hope that people believe you. Language will not help you out if you make a false claim, though you might be/not be believed.

 

[IlyaTretyakov]

A: What did you do in the waiting room while waiting for your appointment?
B: I read War and Peace.

It's obvious (I hope) that I didn't read the whole novel. The verb read expresses only the action of reading.

Since you have given such a wonderful example, I conclude that Past Simple just means that an action took place in the past, and that Past Simple itself doesn't focus on a completion of the action just that the action took place. Yes, I finished reading the book (I read it for 10 minutes), but I didn't complete reading it (because it would take me about 5 hours).
Correct?

 

[jutfrank]

Correct?

I think you've understood this, yes.

The past simple aspect shows that the particular occasion of the action is complete. So if I read just a few pages of War and Peace in the waiting room, it's only that specific ten-minute action that is complete. It doesn't mean the action of reading the whole book is complete.

Let me add something that might help clarify all this. You don't actually need the notion of aspect to properly understand things. It suffices only to consider that the verb read has two different meanings.

1) The simple action of eyes moving across a text and decoding words. Here are some examples:

Last night, I read War and Peace for half an hour before going to bed. I'm nearly halfway through now.
I can't read without my glasses.

2) The action of digesting and processing all information of a text. This sense is necessarily transitive. Here are some examples:

Please read instructions before use.
Did you read my essay? What do you think?

 

[IlyaTretyakov]

Let me add something that might help clarify all this.

You've really made this clear for me.

It's been a meaningful and important conversation for me. Thank you.