Breakdown of Оператор ответила вежливо и сказала, что товара пока нет в наличии.
Questions & Answers about Оператор ответила вежливо и сказала, что товара пока нет в наличии.
Because the speaker is referring to a female operator.
The noun оператор has a masculine-looking form, but it can refer to either a man or a woman, depending on the real person. In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the person's gender:
- ответил / сказал = he answered / he said
- ответила / сказала = she answered / she said
So Оператор ответила... tells you that the operator was a woman.
They are close, but not identical.
- ответила = answered / replied
- сказала = said
So the sentence structure is roughly:
- The operator replied politely and said that...
This is very natural in Russian. First, she replied, and then the content of her reply is introduced with сказала, что...