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- Topic: Russian >
- "Я отвечаю на вопрос."
37 Comments
Is "отвечать на" a standard construction? Why can the sentence not hold the same meaning without "на"?
It is a standard construction. The English verbs "look" and "listen" work in the same fashion: you have to say "look at" and "listen to" something, even though it does not make much sense in some other languages (for example, Russian agrees on "look" but keeps "listen" a transitive verb).
You use "на" with "отвечать" to mean to answer to anything, such as a question, call, or email, but not with people. When answering people, you use the dative: Я отвечаю тебе/Даше/студенту -- I am answering you/Dasha/student
I will soon pass the checkpoint, then I will study hard! duolingo.com (Two lessons of Russian) russianpod101.com (Word of the day) https://www.youtube.com/user/magauchsein (Picking up new words from conversations in Easy Russian)
The expression "to answer to" means to be a subordinate of someone or some authority. e.g. "He answers to me directly."
In this case, the Russian for "to answer to" is подчиняться. Он подчиняется непосредственно мне. Он напрямую подчиняется мне.
Saying "answer to a/the question" when "answer" is being used as a verb sounds unnatural to my ear. So I would say no.
I checked a bit. Feels like that confusion I had came from the fact you say The answer to the question, but you don't say I answer to the question.
Yeah, it's a transitive verb; it doesn't take a preposition except as a verbal noun.
I understand that in this sentence, after " на ", we used the accusative case and not the prepositional . I fail to perceive the motion that is indicated. Being " отвечаю на " a standart construction i will always remember that in this case we also use accusative.
573
It's not motion in a physical sense but the question is whether it's more akin to motion or to a fixed location. In my opinion this sentence is more akin to motion. In fact I usually think of accusative as relating to transition instead of motion.
It sounds like she's saying otvicheyu. Is the a turning into a e said by native speakers?
Probably not always like here (the sound might be raised to different degrees depending on speed) but I do not hear anything wrong with how the voice does it either.
Listen to slower pronunciations here.
Why is "I answer the question" wrong? It told me "I reply to the question" was the answer. Also, is "I answer TO the question" correct?
- 959
"I answer the question" isn't incorrect, but it is a bit unnatural. "I am answering the question" is how we would say it in a way that you want to be the only one or the first one to answer the question. Like someone else said in another comment thread, "I answer TO..." seems like you are answering to a person such as a boss, parent, or someone in charge of you. "I answer to no one" is the first phrase that comes to mind.
Why do you give me three options for "на" on, for and at, when none of them is right. It is very difficult to learn this way how to write the sentence right. At least one of them should be right.
Sounds weird, how to know the difference between "I do answer the question" , and "I am answering the question" ?
From the intonation only. In the case of “I do answere” or “I AM answering”, the verb will be stressed. In the case of “I’m answering the question”, вопрос will be stressed.
- 573
Do you just mean "I answer the question"? Adding do makes the sentence emphatic and unusual.
am I right that when a word ends in a vowel and the next word starts with a vowel the next word loses the vowel at the beginning as in the above phrase? I mean when said at a normal speed in speech.
- 81
You would never say this in English. Present Simple is for habits and facts. We would use present continuous, or future simple here.
