أقرأ في الليل.

A fully vocalized version is أَقْرَأُ فِي اللَّيْلِ.

A careful MSA pronunciation is roughly:

• ʾaqraʾu fī al-layli

A few notes:

• أَ at the beginning is a short a sound with a glottal stop.
• ق is q, a deeper sound than English k.
• The final ء in أقرأ is a hamza, a glottal stop.
• في is fī, with a long ee sound.
• اللَّيل is pronounced with a doubled l sound.

In pause, people often stop without the final case vowels, so you may also hear:

• ʾaqraʾ fī al-layl

Because أقرأ already tells you the subject is I.

In Arabic, the verb often includes the subject information by itself. So:

• أقرأ = I read / I am reading

You can add أنا if you want emphasis or contrast:

• أنا أقرأ في الليل = I read at night

But in a normal sentence, أنا is not necessary.

It can mean either one.

The form أقرأ is the imperfect verb form, which usually covers non-past meanings such as:

• I read
• I am reading
• sometimes even I do read

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

So أقرأ في الليل can mean:

• I read at night if it is habitual
• I am reading at night if it describes what is happening now

أقرأ is the 1st person singular imperfect form of the verb قرأ, meaning to read.

Its root is:

• ق ر أ

That root carries the basic idea of reading/reciting.

The أ- at the beginning is the prefix that often marks I in the imperfect:

• أقرأ = I read

They come from two different things.

• The first hamza, in أَ, is part of the imperfect verb prefix.
• The final hamza, ء, is part of the verb’s root: ق ر أ.

So the final hamza is not an extra symbol added by grammar; it belongs to the word itself.

Literally, في الليل means in the night.

But in natural English, this is usually translated as:

• at night

This is very common in Arabic: في often means in, but with time expressions it can correspond to English at, in, or during, depending on context.

So:

• في الليل = at night
• literally = in the night

Because Arabic often uses the definite article in general time expressions.

So الليل literally means the night, but in the phrase في الليل, the whole expression naturally means at night.

This is normal Arabic usage.

Compare:

• في الليل = at night / during the night in general
• في ليلٍ = in a night / during one night, which is more specific or literary

So the definite article here is not strange; it is the usual way to say this idea.

Because ل is a sun letter.

When الـ comes before a sun letter, the l of the article is not pronounced separately. Instead, the next consonant is doubled.

So:

• written: الليل
• fully vocalized: اللَّيْلِ
• pronounced: roughly al-layli with a strong/doubled l

You still write the article الـ, but in pronunciation it merges into the ل of the noun.

Because it comes after the preposition في.

In MSA, prepositions make the following noun genitive, and the genitive ending is usually -i.

So:

• في اللَّيْلِ

That final -i is the case ending.

In normal Arabic writing, short vowels are usually not written, so you normally just see:

• في الليل

And when speaking in pause, many speakers do not pronounce the final short vowel either.

في is a preposition.

Its basic meaning is:

• in

But with time expressions, it often works like:

• in
• at
• during

So in this sentence:

• في الليل means at night

It is a very common and useful preposition in Arabic.