Thread: 'Instead of walking all the way to the top using the stairs' etc

Originally Posted by grafrich

Okay, seems I've got very rusty on working out which aspect to use...
'Двери уже не пытались закрываться' does my use of 'уже' here contribute towards the idea that the doors tried to close but 'gave up (!), as you put it? Or is that all in the choice of aspect?

You started this with doors trying! things


As for уже, sure it does but not in a sense you might be thinking of. Уже makes the action completed. Yep, 2 imperfective verbs conveying a completed action, albeit a prolonged action that's finally come to an end. If you omit уже from the sentence:

Двери не пытались закрываться.

That'd be a prolonged action with unclear state of completion, like the doors didn't try to close for some time.