Der Schüler liest das Zeugnis.

Because der Schüler is the subject of the sentence — the person doing the action.

In German, the subject usually takes the nominative case.
For a masculine noun like Schüler, the definite article in the nominative singular is der.

So:

• der Schüler = the student, as the subject
• den Schüler = the student, as a masculine direct object

In this sentence, the student is doing the reading, so der is correct.

Das Zeugnis is the direct object here — the thing being read.

The noun Zeugnis is a neuter noun, and the definite article for neuter singular is:

• das in the nominative
• das in the accusative

So even though Zeugnis is the object, the article still stays das because neuter nouns do not change article between nominative and accusative.

That is why you get:

• der Schüler = nominative subject
• das Zeugnis = accusative object

You know from both case and word order.

In Der Schüler liest das Zeugnis:

• der Schüler is nominative, so it is the subject
• das Zeugnis is the object
• liest is the verb

So the meaning is The student reads the report/card/certificate, not the other way around.

German often gives you this information through the articles, which can be very helpful.

The base form is lesen, meaning to read.

Here is part of its present-tense conjugation:

• ich lese = I read / am reading
• du liest = you read / are reading
• er/sie/es liest = he/she/it reads / is reading

Since der Schüler is a third-person singular subject, the verb must be liest.

Because lesen is a strong verb that changes its stem vowel in some present-tense forms.

It goes like this:

• ich lese
• du liest
• er/sie/es liest
• wir lesen
• ihr lest
• sie/Sie lesen

So the e changes to ie in the du form and the er/sie/es form.

That is why:

• Der Schüler liest = The student reads

not Der Schüler leset or Der Schüler lesen.

It can mean either, depending on context.

German very often uses the simple present where English might use either:

• reads
• is reading

So Der Schüler liest das Zeugnis could mean:

• The student reads the report
• The student is reading the report

German does not usually need a separate continuous form like English does.

Schüler usually means school student or pupil, not a university student.

A few useful comparisons:

• der Schüler = male school student / pupil
• die Schülerin = female school student / pupil
• der Student = male university student
• die Studentin = female university student

So Schüler is the normal word for someone attending school.

Grammatically, yes: der Schüler is masculine and usually refers to a male student.

The female form is:

• die Schülerin

In older or more general usage, masculine forms were sometimes used generically, but in a simple sentence like this, most learners should understand der Schüler as the male student.

Zeugnis can have a few meanings depending on context, such as:

• report card
• school report
• certificate
• testimony or testimonial in some contexts

In a school-related sentence with Schüler, learners will often understand das Zeugnis as the report card or school report.

So the exact English translation depends on the situation, even though the grammar stays the same.

Because German main clauses usually follow the verb-second rule, often called V2.

In this sentence:

• Der Schüler = first element
• liest = second element
• das Zeugnis = rest of the sentence

So the finite verb liest must come in the second position in a normal main clause.

This is one of the most important German word-order rules.

Yes, but the verb still has to stay in second position in a main clause.

For example:

• Der Schüler liest das Zeugnis.
• Das Zeugnis liest der Schüler.

The second version is grammatical, but it sounds more marked and emphasizes das Zeugnis.

German allows more flexibility than English because case marking helps show what is subject and what is object.

Because in German, all nouns are capitalized.

So in this sentence:

• Schüler is a noun
• Zeugnis is a noun

That is why both begin with capital letters.

This is a standard rule in German spelling, not something special about this sentence.

A rough pronunciation is:

• Schüler ≈ SHOO-ler, but with the German ü sound

A few parts to notice:

• Sch sounds like English sh
• ü does not sound exactly like English oo
• the final -er is pronounced softly, more like uh

The ü is the tricky part. To make it:

1. Say ee
2. Keep your tongue in that position
3. Round your lips as if saying oo

That gives you the German ü sound.

It is singular.

• das Zeugnis = the report/certificate
• die Zeugnisse = the reports/certificates

So this sentence is talking about one report/certificate, not several.

Yes.

That would mean A student is reading the report/certificate instead of The student is reading the report/certificate.

Compare:

• Der Schüler liest das Zeugnis. = The student reads/is reading the report.
• Ein Schüler liest das Zeugnis. = A student reads/is reading the report.

So the grammar works the same way; only the article changes the meaning.

It is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of liest.

The verb lesen normally takes something that is read:

• Ich lese das Buch.
• Sie liest die Zeitung.
• Der Schüler liest das Zeugnis.

In each case, the thing being read is in the accusative.

For das Zeugnis, the article happens to look the same in nominative and accusative, but the function here is accusative.

Yes. It is a very normal, straightforward sentence.

It follows the standard pattern:

• subject
• verb
• direct object

So it is a good example of basic German sentence structure:

Der Schüler liest das Zeugnis.