Директор ответил лично.

Директор is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence — the person who did the action.

So in Директор ответил лично, директор = the director / the principal / the manager, depending on context.

Ответил is the past tense masculine singular form of the verb.

Russian past tense agrees with gender and number:

• ответил = he answered / a masculine person answered
• ответила = she answered
• ответило = it answered
• ответили = they answered

Because директор is grammatically masculine here, the verb is ответил.

Лично means personally.

In this sentence, it suggests that the director answered:

• in person
• himself
• personally, not through someone else

So the idea is something like: the director did not delegate the reply.

Russian does not have articles like a or the.

So директор can mean:

• a director
• the director

Which one is meant depends on context. In many situations, English will naturally translate it as the director.

In Russian, it is very common to omit information that is already understood from context.

So Директор ответил лично can stand on its own even if it does not say exactly what he answered:

• answered the letter
• answered the question
• replied to the request
• responded to the message

Russian often leaves this implied when it is already known.

This is a question of aspect.

• ответил = perfective
  Focuses on a completed result: he gave a reply.
• отвечал = imperfective
  Focuses more on the process, repetition, or background action: he was answering / used to answer / answered in a general sense

In Директор ответил лично, the speaker is treating the reply as a completed event, so ответил is the natural choice.

Yes. Russian word order is more flexible than English.

This sentence could also appear as:

• Директор лично ответил.
• Лично ответил директор.

All of these are possible, but the emphasis changes slightly.

• Директор ответил лично. = neutral; the director answered personally
• Директор лично ответил. = stronger emphasis on personally
• Лично ответил директор. = stronger contrast or emphasis, something like It was the director who answered personally

They are related, but not always identical.

• лично = personally
• сам = himself

In many contexts they overlap:

• Директор ответил лично.
• Директор сам ответил.

Both can suggest that the director did it without using someone else.

But лично often emphasizes the personal involvement of the person, while сам emphasizes that he himself, rather than someone else, did it.

Sometimes they can even appear together for extra emphasis:

• Директор сам лично ответил.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Директор = dee-REK-tar
• ответил = at-VYE-til
• лично = LEECH-na

Stress:

• дире́ктор
• отве́тил
• ли́чно

A more natural connected pronunciation is approximately:

dee-REK-tar at-VYE-til LEECH-na

Yes. The exact English translation depends on context.

Директор can mean:

• director
• manager
• head
• principal (for a school)

So if this sentence is about a school, Директор ответил лично may mean The principal answered personally.

Yes. It is short, complete, and natural.

Russian often allows brief sentences like this, especially when the context is already known. A native speaker would understand it easily as a full statement meaning that the director personally gave the reply.

Yes, very often that is exactly the implication.

Because of лично, the sentence can suggest something like:

• the director answered, not a secretary
• the director replied himself
• the director got involved personally

That contrast may be explicit from context, or just implied.