Russian Vocabulary (and Wisdom)

How to say "to answer" in Russian

This Russian word is one of the top 1000 words in Russian. The complete list of most common Russian words is available here.

отвечать

Meaning: to answer, reply, respond, be responsible for, be in charge of, meet

Pronunciation: [aht-vee-CHAHT']

Part of speech: verb (imperfective aspect)

Rank: #404 (see frequency list)

His phone doesn't answer. Photo by tylerdurden1, licensed under CC GA 2.0

Example sentences:

Егó телефóн не отвечáeт.
His phone doesn't answer.
Ты за меня́ не отвечáй!
Don't answer for me!
Я всегдá отвечáю на все вопрócы.
I always give anwsers to all the questions.
В фи́рме она отвечáла за перепи́ску.
She was responsible for correspondence in the company.
Не трóгай егó, я за негó головóй отвечáю!
Don't touch him, I'm responsible for him with my life!
Дирéктор отвечáет за кáчество своéй проду́кции.
The director is responsible for his production quality.
Одéжда отвечáeт кли́мату.
Clothes meet the climate conditions.
Ты всегдá отвечáешь мне по имэ́йлу
You always respond to me by e-mail.

Idioms and set expressions:

отвечáть головóй, жи́знью за что-ли́бо, когó-ли́бо = stake one's life on smth, smb
отвечáть за себя́ = answer for oneself
отвечáть своему́ назначéнию = answer its purpose
отвечáть трéбованиям = meet / answer the requirements
отвечáть урóк = answer in class

Related words:

отвéтить = to answer
отвечáющий = the answerer
нести́ отвéтственность = be responsible for
cоотвéтствовать = to meet, correspond

Verb conjugation:

Present Tense

I	отвеча́ю
you (singular)	отвеча́ешь
he, she, it	отвеча́ет
we	отвеча́ем
you (plural)	отвеча́ете
they	отвеча́ют

Past Tense

I, you (singular), he	отвеча́л
she	отвеча́ла
it	отвеча́ло
we, you (plural), they	отвеча́ли

Future Simple Tense

The imperfective verb отвечать is not used in the Future Simple Tense. Use the perfective verb ответить instead.

Future Compound Tense

I	буду отвеча́ть
you (singular)	будешь отвеча́ть
he, she, it	будет отвеча́ть
we	будем отвеча́ть
you (plural)	будете отвеча́ть
they	будут отвеча́ть

Imperative Mood (Command Form)

you (singular)	отвеча́й
you (plural)	отвеча́йте

View full conjugation table for the verb pair отвечать/ответить

Vocabulary lesson: By Russificate blog exclusively for MasterRussian

Phrase recordings: Copyright(c) 2011 MasterRussian.com. All rights reserved.
Word recordings: Copyright(c) 2006 Streit Goulnara, Streit Eric, Vion Nicolas. Copyright(c) 2007 S. Sakhno, N. Vion. Distributed under CC-BY.

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