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Questions & Answers about Прочитайте текст, пожалуйста.
Why does прочитайте end in -йте?
This is the formal or plural imperative (command) form. When asking a group of people or someone you address as вы (formal "you"), you add -те to the command. Because the stem of the verb ends in a vowel (прочита-), we use -й- before the -те. If you were talking to a close friend, you would just say прочитай.
I know the verb читать (to read). Why does it start with про- here?
Adding the prefix про- to читать means to read something completely, from start to finish. When asking someone to read a specific thing like "the text" or "the book," Russian usually uses прочитать because the goal is to finish reading it, rather than just the general process of reading.
Since текст is the object being read, shouldn't its ending change?
You are thinking of the accusative case, which is exactly right for the direct object of a sentence! However, текст is a masculine, inanimate (non-living) noun. For inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative case form is identical to the standard dictionary form, so no ending is added or changed.
Is the comma before пожалуйста strictly necessary?
Yes. In Russian punctuation, the word пожалуйста (please) must always be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. Since it is at the end of the sentence here, a comma is required right before it.