Example sentences
nǐ你zài在dú读shén什me么shū书？
What book are you reading?
tā他dú读dé得hěn很hǎo好。
He reads very well.
The story behind the character
读
读 is 言 (speech) on the left with 卖 on the right, which is there for the sound. Xu Shen wrote 读, 誦書也, to recite a text out loud. That is why the speech radical is in there. When this character was built, reading meant saying the words aloud. The traditional 讀 kept the full 言; the simplified form shrank it to 讠.