أقرأ بحثا في الجامعة.

A careful MSA pronunciation is:

ʾaqraʾu baḥthan fī al-jāmiʿati

A few notes:

• أقرأ begins with a glottal stop: ʾa-
• ق is a deep q sound, not an English k
• بحث has ḥ, a stronger breathy h
• في is fī with a long ee
• الجامعة is al-jāmiʿa, with jā as a long syllable

If you pause at the end of the sentence, native-style pronunciation often drops the final short vowel, so it may sound more like:

ʾaqraʾ baḥthan fī al-jāmiʿah

Because the verb أقرأ already includes the subject I.

In Arabic, verbs often show the subject inside the verb form itself.
So:

• أقرأ = I read / I am reading

You could add أنا for emphasis:

• أنا أقرأ بحثا في الجامعة

But in a normal sentence, أنا is not necessary.

By itself, أقرأ is normally present tense and can mean:

• I read
• I am reading

The exact English translation depends on context.

If you want a clearer future meaning, Arabic often adds a future marker such as:

• سأقرأ = I will read
• سوف أقرأ = I will read

So in your sentence, أقرأ is most naturally present: I read / I am reading.

Because بحثا is the direct object of the verb, and in MSA that usually takes the accusative case.

Here:

• أقرأ = verb
• بحثا = direct object, so it is accusative

An indefinite accusative noun often gets tanwīn fatḥ: -an

So:

• بحثٌ = a research paper / study (nominative)
• بحثًا = a research paper / study (accusative)

Since I read takes a direct object, بحثًا is the expected form.

That extra ا is the tanwīn fatḥ seat often written with an indefinite accusative noun.

So although the ending is pronounced -an, it is commonly written as:

• بحثًا

This final ا is usually not pronounced as a long ā. It is mainly part of the spelling convention for tanwīn fatḥ.

So:

• Written: بحثًا
• Pronounced in connected speech: baḥthan

في means in or at, and it is a preposition.

After a preposition in Arabic, the following noun normally goes into the genitive case. So الجامعة here is understood as:

• في الجامعةِ

That final -i is the genitive ending, though in normal everyday writing short vowels are usually not written.

So grammatically:

• في = preposition
• الجامعةِ = noun after a preposition, therefore genitive

Because they are functioning differently in the sentence.

• بحثًا means a research paper / a study → indefinite
• الجامعةِ means the university → definite

Arabic marks definiteness with الـ.

So:

• بحث = a research paper / a study
• البحث = the research paper / the study
• جامعة = a university
• الجامعة = the university

In your sentence, the speaker is reading a paper, but doing so at the university.

بحث can mean several related things depending on context, such as:

• research
• study
• paper
• essay
• article in some contexts

In a university setting, بحث often means something like:

• a research paper
• a paper
• a study

So the exact English word may vary, even though the Arabic grammar stays the same.

Yes. Arabic word order is more flexible than English word order.

The neutral order here is:

• أقرأ بحثا في الجامعة

But you could also move the prepositional phrase for emphasis:

• في الجامعة أقرأ بحثا

That might emphasize at the university.

Still, for a learner, the original order is a very natural and straightforward one:

• verb + object + prepositional phrase

You would make بحث definite by adding الـ:

• أقرأ البحثَ في الجامعة

Now it means I read/am reading the research paper at the university.

Notice that it is still the direct object, so it is still accusative:

• البحثَ

The difference is:

• بحثًا = a research paper
• البحثَ = the research paper

In full, careful Modern Standard Arabic, yes, they are part of the grammar:

• أقرأُ
• بحثًا
• في الجامعةِ

But in many real spoken situations, especially outside highly formal speech, speakers often reduce or omit some final case endings.

For learning MSA grammar, though, it is very useful to know them because they explain:

• why بحثًا is accusative
• why الجامعةِ is genitive
• how Arabic sentence structure works

So even if you do not always hear every ending clearly, they are still important to understand.