Vocab: vastama - to answer
to respond; to answer; to answer or respond to a question, suggestion, opinion, etc., verbally or in another way; to correspond to something; to match with something; reciting in school
Building blocks
vasta- → verb stem (core meaning: in response / against)
-ma → infinitive ending
So literally vastama = “to act in response to something”
How to use it
What to remember
Whom or What you answer to is in the Allative case (ending -le)
What you answer with is in the Comitative case (ending -ga)
Example
Õpetaja vastas küsimusele rahulikult
Literally: “Teacher answered question-onto calmly”
Idiomatically: “The teacher answered the question calmly”
Õpetaja - Noun - Nominative Singular: "Teacher"
vastas - Verb - 3rd Person Singular, Past Tense: "answered"
küsimusele - Noun - Allative Singular: "onto question"
rahulikult - Adverb - Indeclinable: "calmly"Ta vastas e-kirjale täpsete andmetega
Literally: “He replied email-onto precise information-with”
Idiomatically: “He replied to the email with precise information”
Ta - Pronoun - Nominative Singular: "He/she"
vastas - Verb - 3rd Person Singular, Past Tense: "answered"
e-kirjale - Noun - Allative Singular: "onto email"
täpsete - Adjective - Genitive Plural: "precise"
andmetega - Noun - Comitative Plural: "with information"