La risposta è ovvia.

• La = the (feminine singular definite article)
• risposta = answer
• è = is
• ovvia = obvious

Grammatically, la risposta is the subject, è is the verb, and ovvia is an adjective describing the subject.

In Italian, nouns usually need an article more often than in English. Here la risposta means the answer, referring to a specific answer.

So:

• La risposta è ovvia = The answer is obvious
• Risposta è ovvia is not correct in standard Italian

Italian generally does not drop the article here the way English sometimes can.

Risposta is a feminine noun in Italian. Many nouns ending in -a are feminine, and risposta is one of them.

Because it is feminine singular, the words that agree with it must also be feminine singular:

• la risposta
• ovvia

If the noun were masculine, the adjective would change too.

Italian adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in gender and number.

Since risposta is feminine singular, the adjective must also be feminine singular:

• masculine singular: ovvio
• feminine singular: ovvia
• masculine plural: ovvi
• feminine plural: ovvie

So:

• Il problema è ovvio
• La risposta è ovvia

The accent is important because è and e are different words:

• è = is
• e = and

So the accent helps distinguish the verb from the conjunction.

Also, è is the third-person singular form of essere (to be).

A simple pronunciation guide is:

lah ree-SPOHS-tah eh OV-vyah

A few points:

• risposta has the stress on spo
• è sounds like eh
• ovvia has a doubled v, so the vv is pronounced more strongly than a single v
• ovvia is roughly OV-vyah

Yes, but that is a different structure.

• La risposta è ovvia = The answer is obvious
• L'ovvia risposta = the obvious answer

In your sentence, ovvia comes after è because it is part of the predicate: it tells us what the answer is like.

If you place the adjective directly before the noun, as in l'ovvia risposta, it becomes part of the noun phrase itself. This can sound a little more formal or stylistic than the basic sentence.

The normal, neutral order is:

La risposta è ovvia.

That is the most natural version for most situations.

Italian can sometimes change word order for emphasis, but that usually sounds marked, literary, or context-dependent. For a learner, the standard order is the best one to use.

The plural would be:

Le risposte sono ovvie.

Here everything changes to plural:

• la → le
• risposta → risposte
• è → sono
• ovvia → ovvie

This is a good example of how articles, nouns, verbs, and adjectives work together in Italian.

Yes. Ovvio / ovvia is a common adjective meaning obvious.

You may also hear related expressions such as:

• È ovvio. = It’s obvious.
• Ovviamente = obviously

So this sentence uses very normal, everyday Italian.