Он отошёл от двери.

Both verbs can be translated as went away / moved away, but they are not the same.

• отойти → to step away, move away from something/someone
• уйти → to leave, go away, depart

In Он отошёл от двери, the idea is specifically that he moved away from the door, not necessarily that he left the place completely.

So:

• Он отошёл от двери = he stepped/moved away from the door
• Он ушёл = he left

The prefix от- often adds the sense of away from.

Because after от in this meaning, Russian normally uses the genitive case.

The basic dictionary form is:

• дверь = door

But after от:

• от двери = from the door

So двери here is the genitive singular form of дверь.

Here от means from or away from.

It marks the starting point of movement:

• от двери = from the door
• от окна = from the window
• от стола = from the table

So the structure is:

• отойти от + genitive = to move away from something

The infinitive is отойти.

This is a perfective verb. Its imperfective partner is usually отходить.

So:

• отойти = to move away, to step away once / as a completed action
• отходить = to be moving away, to move away repeatedly or in process

Examples:

• Он отошёл от двери. = He moved away from the door.
• Он отходил от двери, когда... = He was moving away from the door when...

Because this is the past tense.

In Russian, past tense is usually formed from the verb stem plus -л, and it agrees in gender and number.

For отойти:

• он отошёл = he moved away
• она отошла = she moved away
• оно отошло = it moved away
• они отошли = they moved away

So отошёл is the masculine singular past form.

The correct pronunciation is with ё: отошёл.

In many Russian texts, ё is often written as е, so you may see:

• отошел

But it is still pronounced отошёл.

This matters because ё carries the stress here:

• о-то-шёл

For learners, it is helpful to remember the pronunciation with ё, even if many printed texts leave the dots off.

The stress is:

• Он отошёл от двери.
• отошёл → stress on the last syllable: о-то-шёл
• двери → stress on the first syllable: две-ри

A rough pronunciation guide:

• Он = on
• отошёл ≈ a-ta-SHYOL
• от двери ≈ ot DVE-ri

The ё sound is always stressed.

No. Here двери is singular, not plural.

That can be confusing because двери can also be the nominative plural form:

• двери = doors

But in this sentence, because it comes after от, it is genitive singular:

• от двери = from the door

You can tell from the grammar of the sentence, not just the word form by itself.

отойти is perfective.

That means the sentence presents the movement away from the door as a completed whole:

• Он отошёл от двери = he moved/stepped away from the door

If you wanted the action as ongoing, repeated, or uncompleted, you would usually use the imperfective отходить.

So aspect helps show whether the speaker is describing:

• a completed event → отошёл
• a process / repeated action → отходил

Yes. Russian word order is flexible.

The neutral order here is:

• Он отошёл от двери.

But other orders are possible, depending on emphasis:

• От двери он отошёл. = It was from the door that he moved away.
• Отошёл он от двери. = more marked; can sound contrastive or literary depending on context.

For a learner, Он отошёл от двери is the safest and most natural default.

Not necessarily exactly one step.

It means he moved away from the door. In context, that could be:

• stepped back from it
• walked away from it a little
• moved aside from it

The verb does not specify the exact distance. It only tells you that he is now away from the door, compared with where he was before.

Yes. This is a very common pattern:

• отойти от + genitive

Examples:

• Он отошёл от окна. = He moved away from the window.
• Она отошла от стола. = She moved away from the table.
• Ребёнок отошёл от матери. = The child moved away from his/her mother.

So once you learn the pattern, you can use it widely.

Russian often omits pronouns when the subject is clear from context.

So both are possible:

• Он отошёл от двери.
• Отошёл от двери.

The first is more explicit: He moved away from the door.
The second can sound natural when it is already obvious who is being talked about.

Russian uses subject pronouns less often than English does, especially when the verb form already makes the meaning clear enough in context.