Czy możesz odpowiedzieć na to pytanie?

Czy is a particle used to introduce a yes/no question.

So:

• Czy możesz odpowiedzieć na to pytanie? = Can you answer this question?

It does not have a direct English equivalent in this sentence. It mainly signals that the speaker is asking a question.

You can sometimes leave czy out in speech if your intonation already makes it clear that it is a question:

• Możesz odpowiedzieć na to pytanie?

That is still natural, but czy makes the question more explicitly marked.

This is because Polish often forms can + verb the same way English does:

• możesz = you can / you are able
• odpowiedzieć = to answer

So literally, the structure is:

• Czy możesz odpowiedzieć... = Can you answer...

Here:

• możesz is the conjugated verb
• odpowiedzieć stays in the infinitive

This is very common with modal-like verbs in Polish.

Możesz is the 2nd person singular form of móc (to be able to / can).

It means:

• you can

A few related forms:

• mogę = I can
• możesz = you can
• może = he/she/it can
• możemy = we can
• możecie = you all can
• mogą = they can

So this sentence is addressed to one person in an informal way.

This is a question about aspect, which is very important in Polish.

• odpowiedzieć = perfective
• odpowiadać = imperfective

In this sentence, odpowiedzieć is used because the speaker is asking about completing one answer to one specific question.

So:

• Czy możesz odpowiedzieć na to pytanie? sounds like
  Can you answer this question? / Can you give an answer to this question?

If you used odpowiadać, it would sound more like talking about the activity or process of answering in a more general or repeated sense.

This is why the perfective verb is the natural choice here.

In Polish, odpowiedzieć usually goes with the preposition na when you say what question someone answers.

So the normal pattern is:

• odpowiedzieć na pytanie = to answer a question

This is simply the standard Polish construction, even though English uses answer a question without a preposition.

So you should learn it as a chunk:

• odpowiedzieć na coś
• odpowiadać na coś

Examples:

• odpowiedzieć na pytanie = answer a question
• odpowiadać na maila = reply to an email
• odpowiedzieć na prośbę = respond to a request

After na in this sentence, pytanie is in the accusative case.

The dictionary form is:

• pytanie = question

Here, the accusative singular is also:

• pytanie

So the form does not change.

That happens because pytanie is a neuter noun, and many neuter nouns have the same form in the nominative and accusative singular.

So:

• nominative: to jest pytanie = this is a question
• accusative: na to pytanie = this question / onto this question / to this question, depending on context

Because pytanie is a neuter noun.

In Polish, demonstratives agree with the gender of the noun:

• ten = masculine
• ta = feminine
• to = neuter

So:

• ten stół = this table
• ta książka = this book
• to pytanie = this question

In the sentence na to pytanie, the word to matches pytanie in gender, number, and case.

It is informal singular, because of możesz.

It is used when speaking to:

• one friend
• one child
• one person you address as ty

If you want the formal version, you would say:

• Czy może Pan odpowiedzieć na to pytanie?
• Czy może Pani odpowiedzieć na to pytanie?

And if you are speaking to more than one person informally:

• Czy możecie odpowiedzieć na to pytanie?

Yes. Polish word order is more flexible than English word order.

The neutral version is:

• Czy możesz odpowiedzieć na to pytanie?

But you may also hear other orders for emphasis, such as:

• Czy na to pytanie możesz odpowiedzieć?
• Możesz odpowiedzieć na to pytanie?

These all mean roughly the same thing, but the emphasis can shift slightly.

For a learner, the safest neutral order is the original one:

• Czy możesz odpowiedzieć na to pytanie?

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Chih MOH-zhesh odpoh-vyeh-jyech nah toh pytah-nyeh?

A few helpful points:

• czy sounds roughly like chi in chin, but with a harder Polish sound
• możesz has ż, a sound like the s in measure
• odpowiedzieć is pronounced approximately odpoh-vyeh-jyech
• pytanie ends with -nie, which sounds like nye

If you want to sound natural, try to say it smoothly in groups:

• Czy możesz / odpowiedzieć / na to pytanie?