Breakdown of Они ответили нам только сегодня.
они
they
только
only
сегодня
today
ответить
to answer (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Они ответили нам только сегодня.
Why does the sentence use нам (us) instead of нас?
In Russian, verbs meaning "to answer" require the person you are answering to be in the Dative case. You can think of it as "They gave an answer TO us." Since the pronoun мы (we) becomes нам in the Dative case, we use нам here.
Why does the verb ответили end in -и?
In the past tense, Russian verbs change their endings to match the gender and number of the subject. Because the subject is Они (they), which is plural, the verb takes the plural past-tense ending -и.
I noticed сегодня is pronounced like "se-vod-nya". Why is there a г in the spelling?
This is a great spelling rule to remember! The word сегодня historically comes from two older words meaning "of this day". In Russian, the grammatical endings -его or -ого are always pronounced with a "v" sound instead of a hard "g". So, the letter г is written, but a "v" sound is spoken.
Does только have to go right before сегодня?
Usually, yes. In Russian, words like только (only) generally go immediately before the word they are emphasizing. Here, the sentence emphasizes that they answered only today (and not earlier), so it sits right in front of сегодня.