Learn Hardcore Chinese: lǎoshī ràng wǒmen huíjiā dú yìxiē wénzhāng, ránhòu zài kèshàng zìyóu tǎolùn. - The teacher asked us to go home and read some articles, then freely discuss them in class.

It usually does not sound like a harsh “forced / made us” unless the context or tone clearly indicates that. It is also not the permissive “let us” here; it’s more of an assignment/instruction.

What grammar pattern is 老师让我们回家读一些文章 following?

The structure is:

老师（subject） + 让（verb: cause/ask） + 我们（object 1: person） + 回家读一些文章（object 2: action phrase）

Broken down:

老师 – subject: the one initiating the action
让 – verb: causes or asks someone to act
我们 – the person who will perform the action
回家读一些文章 – what 我们 will do

This is a common causative / “ask someone to do something” pattern:

妈妈让我去买菜。 – Mom asked me to go buy groceries.
老板让他写报告。 – The boss had him write a report.

No extra word like English “to” is needed; the verb phrase just comes directly after 我们.

Why are 回家 and 读一些文章 placed directly together without 和 or another connector?

This is a serial verb construction, where multiple actions are listed in sequence without extra conjunctions.

回家读一些文章 literally: “go home read some articles”

This can be understood as:

go home and (then) read some articles, or
go home to read some articles.

Chinese often just puts verbs/verb phrases back-to-back when the order is obvious and closely related:

回家吃饭 – go home (and) eat
去超市买东西 – go to the supermarket (and) buy things

So 回家读一些文章 is natural and does not need 和 or 然后 in between.

Is 回家 here a place, or is it part of the verb?

回家 is a directional verb phrase:

回 – to return, to go back
家 – home (destination)

Together, 回家 means “to go home / to return home”, and it behaves as a verb phrase, not just a static location.

In 回家读一些文章:

回家 – first action: go home
读一些文章 – second action: read some articles (once you’re home)

Why is 读 used instead of 看 for reading articles?

Both 读 and 看 can relate to “reading”, but they emphasize slightly different things:

读 – focuses on the act of reading as study/serious reading, often out loud or with attention to content (like reading books, articles, texts).
看 – more general: to look at, watch, read (visually). You 看书, 看报纸, but it’s a bit more neutral/visual.

For 文章 (articles / essays), especially in a school / homework context, 读 suggests:

read them seriously / carefully
do active reading, not just glance at them

You could say 看一些文章 in casual speech, but 读一些文章 fits the academic/homework tone better.

Should there be a measure word between 一些 and 文章, like 一些篇文章?

No, you do not need a measure word here. 一些文章 is perfectly natural.

Patterns:

一些 + noun is common: 一些人, 一些问题, 一些事情, 一些文章.
When you talk about a specific number, you normally use a measure word:
- 几篇文章, 两篇文章, 三篇文章 (with 篇 as the measure word).

You would not say 一些篇文章. You either use:

一些文章 (some articles, quantity not specified), or
几篇文章, 几篇好的文章 (a few articles, with measure word 篇).

What does 在课上 literally mean, and how does it work grammatically?

在课上:

在 – at / in / on (preposition of location or time-like setting)
课 – class, lesson
上 – on / during (here attached to 课 to mean “during class / in class time”)

So 在课上 literally means “during class” or “in class (time)”.

Grammatically, it is a prepositional phrase of time/place:

(在课上) 自由讨论 – (in class) discuss freely.

Similar structures:

在家吃饭 – eat at home
在学校学习 – study at school
在会上发言 – speak at the meeting

Why is 自由 used by itself before 讨论? Should it be 自由地讨论?

In strict grammar, 自由地 (with 地) is the adverbial form:

自由地讨论 – to discuss freely.

In modern spoken and written Chinese, especially with short common words, 地 is often omitted, and adjectives are used directly as adverbs:

认真（地）学习 – study seriously
清楚（地）说明 – explain clearly
自由（地）讨论 – discuss freely

So 自由讨论 is natural and correct, and 自由地讨论 is also correct, just a bit more formal/explicit. Both are widely used.

Can we say 自由地讨论 instead of 自由讨论? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say 自由地讨论. The meaning is essentially the same:

自由讨论 – more compact, common in speech and casual writing
自由地讨论 – a bit more formal / written in feel, or when you want to clearly show the adverbial role

In everyday conversation, most people would just say 自由讨论. In a written instruction, both are fine:

然后在课上自由讨论。
然后在课上自由地讨论。

Why is there no object after 讨论? Shouldn’t it say 讨论这些文章?

Chinese frequently omits objects when they are obvious from context.

We already know what is being discussed from earlier in the sentence:

读一些文章 → the articles are the topic.

So 自由讨论 naturally means “freely discuss (them)”, and them doesn’t need to be repeated.

You could say:

…然后在课上自由讨论这些文章。

This is also correct and a bit more explicit, but it’s not necessary. Omitting the object is very common when:

the object was just mentioned, or
everyone knows what is being talked about.

There is no 了 in this sentence. How do we know if this is past, present, or future?

Chinese does not mark tense the way English does. Instead, it relies on:

context,
time words, and
sometimes particles like 了, 过, 在.

In this sentence:

The structure 老师让我们… can describe something the teacher is now assigning or assigned earlier.
The content (go home, read, then discuss in class) looks like instructions / homework, so we naturally interpret it as what the teacher wants us to do (future relative to the moment of speaking).

If you wanted to emphasize that this is something that happened already, you might say in narration:

昨天老师让我们回家读一些文章，然后在课上自由讨论。
– Yesterday the teacher had us go home and read some articles, then discuss them freely in class.

So the tense is mostly inferred from time expressions and context, not from verb changes.

Can we replace 然后 with 再 or 以后? What’s the difference?

Roughly:

然后 – and then / afterwards, marks the next step in a sequence
再 – then / again / next, often used for “do B after A”
以后 – after … / later (in the future)

In this sentence:

…回家读一些文章，然后在课上自由讨论。 – natural and common.
…回家读一些文章，再在课上自由讨论。 – also possible; 再 emphasizes “next, then”.
…回家读一些文章，以后在课上自由讨论。 – possible, but 以后 can feel a bit looser in time, like “sometime later in class”, not necessarily immediately as the next step.

然后 is the most straightforward here for a clear, ordered sequence: first A, then B.

Could we say 回到家 instead of 回家? Is there a difference?

Both are correct, but there’s a nuance:

回家 – go back home / return home (very common, neutral)
回到家 – reach home, emphasizes the arrival (到 = arrive)

In this sentence:

老师让我们回家读一些文章… – fine and natural.
老师让我们回到家读一些文章… – also grammatical, with a slightly stronger sense that the reading is done once you get home (having arrived there).

In most everyday homework-type instructions, 回家 is more common and feels simpler and smoother.

Is the sentence describing what happened, or giving a command? How would that change in English?

Chinese often uses the same structure for:

Reporting what someone said / assigned
- “(Earlier) the teacher had us do X.”
Quoting the teacher’s instruction indirectly
- “The teacher asked us to do X.”

老师让我们回家读一些文章，然后在课上自由讨论。 can be:

A description of what the teacher assigned (past or present):
- “The teacher asked us to go home and read some articles, then freely discuss them in class.”
Or a retelling right after the teacher just said it:
- “The teacher is having us go home to read some articles, then freely discuss them in class.”

If you want it to sound more like a direct command in Chinese, the teacher might say:

你们回家读一些文章，然后在课上自由讨论。
– You (all) go home and read some articles, then discuss them freely in class.

Your original sentence is more like reporting what the teacher wants you to do.