De man naast mij leest de krant.

Because naast is a preposition, and after a preposition Dutch uses an object form of the pronoun, not the subject form.

• subject form: ik = I
• object form: mij = me

So:

• ik lees = I read
• naast mij = next to me

This is similar to English using me, not I, after a preposition: next to me, not next to I.

Yes. Naast me is very common in everyday Dutch.

• naast mij is a bit more stressed, careful, or emphatic
• naast me is more neutral in normal speech

Both are correct here.

Because the subject is de man, which is third person singular: he / the man.

The verb lezen means to read. In the present tense:

• ik lees = I read
• jij leest = you read
• hij leest = he reads
• wij lezen = we read

Since de man is singular, Dutch uses leest.

In Dutch, every noun has a grammatical article. Singular nouns normally take either de or het.

Both man and krant are de-words, so you say:

• de man
• de krant

Unfortunately, whether a noun is a de-word or a het-word often just has to be learned with the noun. There are some patterns, but many learners memorize nouns together with their article.

Usually yes. De krant literally means the newspaper, so it sounds definite.

In real usage, though, Dutch often uses de krant lezen in a fairly natural, general way, similar to English read the newspaper. It can mean a specific paper, but it can also just refer to the newspaper someone is reading in that situation.

If you wanted a newspaper, you would say een krant.

Yes, in this sentence it is.

The structure is:

• De man naast mij = the man next to me
• leest = reads
• de krant = the newspaper

So the order is:

subject + verb + object

That is the normal pattern in a simple main clause in Dutch.

Because naast mij describes which man you mean. It functions like extra information attached to the noun man.

So:

• de man = the man
• de man naast mij = the man next to me

In English, next to me also comes after the man, so this part works very similarly.

That sentence would usually mean something different, or at least sound less natural for the intended meaning.

• De man naast mij leest de krant = the man who is next to me is reading the newspaper
• De man leest naast mij de krant suggests that the reading happens next to me, rather than naast mij identifying the man

So if you want naast mij to describe the man, the original sentence is the best choice.

Because naast mij is not a full clause like the man is next to me. It is just a phrase modifying the noun man.

Compare:

• De man is naast mij. = The man is next to me.
• De man naast mij leest de krant. = The man next to me reads the newspaper.

In the second sentence, naast mij is part of the noun phrase, not a separate statement.

Leest is pronounced with a long ee sound, roughly like the vowel in English face but without the glide at the end.

A rough guide:

• lees sounds something like lace without a strong final glide
• leest adds a final t

Also, ee in Dutch is usually a long vowel, so leest does not sound like English lest.

Not in a way that helps much for learning this sentence. The important thing for a learner is simply that krant means newspaper.

A useful thing to remember is:

• krant = newspaper
• de krant lezen = to read the newspaper

That whole phrase is common and worth learning as a chunk.