why doesn't "lisez vous le journal" count?
Because "lisez-vous le journal ?" is a question (with hyphen and question mark)
ah it must have been the hyphen, as i had the question mark when i originally answered.
I thought Vous an Tu could be translated to you
yes: "tu lis" or "vous lisez" both translate "you read".
Why wouldn't "Tu as lu le journal" also be accepted for "You read the newspaper" as in English it could either be present or past as there is no context.
When there is no context, there is no alternative, you have to translate present with present, both ways.
But if it is presented as "You read the newspaper" there is absolutely no way of knowing if it is present or past.
Pretty confusing
Lisez, lisont, lit ,lis