Breakdown of Вы спрашиваете, а я отвечаю.
а
and (contrastive)
я
I
вы
you (plural or formal)
спрашивать
to ask
Questions & Answers about Вы спрашиваете, а я отвечаю.
How do we form the verb спрашиваете?
This comes from the first conjugation verb спрашивать (to ask). Because the subject is Вы (you, plural or formal), we drop the -ть from the dictionary form and add the plural ending -ете. This is the standard rule for most verbs ending in -ать.
Why does the sentence use а for 'and' instead of и?
In Russian, а is a conjunction used to show a slight contrast or a shift in focus, often translated as 'and' or 'but'. Here, the focus shifts from what you are doing to what I am doing. If you used и, it would just lump the actions together without highlighting the contrast between your role and my role.
How does the ending of отвечаю work here?
отвечаю comes from отвечать (to answer). Even though it belongs to the exact same verb group as спрашивать, it gets a different ending because the subject is я (I). For the 'I' form in these first conjugation verbs, we drop the -ть and add -ю.
Does this sentence mean 'You ask, and I answer' or 'You are asking, and I am answering'?
It can mean both! Russian does not have a separate continuous tense like English does. The single present tense form спрашиваете translates to both 'you ask' and 'you are asking', and отвечаю covers both 'I answer' and 'I am answering'.