Quote Originally Posted by zorro View Post
Did you rest this morning? Yes, I did.
Ты был отдыхать сегодня утром? Был. Is the syntax correct or should сегодня утром come first. Also the response should be Был, not да?
Ты отдыхал сегодня утром?
If this sentence is pronounced with neutral intonation (with no stress or with stressed "отдыхал"). correct positive answers are:
Да.
Отдыхал.
Да, отдыхал.
Да, я отдыхал.
Да, я отдыхал сегодня утром.

Is the syntax correct or should сегодня утром come first.
In short - both are OK. If you want dive deeply...

Ты отдыхал сегодня утром? - This is neutral word order. Generally word order is more free in Russian than in English. But different order can have a reason, especially in literary style, where you can not use voice stress: at the beginning (and sometimes at the end) of the sentence words that you want to emphasize. So, "сегодня утром ты отдыхал?" can mean the following:
(Usually you rest in morning, but) did you rest this morning? But it is not mandatory.

Is "rock and roll" grammatically singular in Russian? Рок-и-ролл мне не очень нравится.
Рок-н-ролл. No other way I know of. Hyphens used to show grammatical singularity.

У нас была машина. Она была красивая, но она не хорошо работала. Should хорошо go here?
As a first approach will do. The sentence is grammatically correct but strange. Why don't you use "плохо" instead of "не хорошо"?

If the question is Ты когда-нибудь был в Сибири? Is the better negative answer Нет or Не был?
Both are OK unless in the context can be treated ambiguously . "Никогда" also will do.