"我们在读报纸。"
Translation:We are reading the newspaper.
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读书 generally means study, but 看书 means reading a book. 看报 or 看报纸 is more natural than 读报 or 读报纸, people that 读 a newspaper really pay attention to the stories compared to those who just flip through the pages browsing (看).
报 (bào) = to announce/to inform/report/newspaper
纸 (zhǐ) = paper
报纸 (bàozhǐ) = an announcement paper (lit.) = newspaper
在 denotes continuous mood. I guess that without it, some people would understand "we read the newspaper every day, but not right now". Hope a native lends us a hand.
在 seems to be used when you/something are actively DOING something, or that you/something are LOCATED somewhere.
猫在桌子上 - the cat is on top of the table (LOCATION of the cat)
我在看报纸 - I am reading the newspaper (you are DOING something)
看 means "to look". We can use it for silent reading (looking at words). 读 definately means reading (not just looking), and it can be used for reading aloud.
Why does the "the" have to be there I know it's correct grammar, but I just DON'T GET IT!
Ok, so if you said “We’re reading newspaper” it would be weird. That might mean that you’re reading a mass of newspaper, like you’d papered the walls with newspaper.
This sentence needs an article (a or the) because it’s a countable noun. (NB If the word were something uncountable, like water, then it might not need always the article.)
If you’re asking why the sentence isn’t “We’re reading newspapers” or “We’re reading a newspaper”, then I agree that you should submit it as a correct answer.
The correct way of writing it is 看报纸 , but 读报纸 is the same thing, it's just a little weird to say it that way.
