student asking question

What does "read [someone]" mean?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

To "read [someone]" means to understand someone's thoughts and motives, to have a sense of what they're feeling or trying to say. It's also possible to "read" a situation and understand the dynamics of something happening without it being clearly said. Ex: I always struggled to read her when we had a conversation. Ex: He reads me so well and always knows what to say. Ex: I read the situation entirely wrong. I thought you were hitting on me.

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