可以说I cannot answer to your question吗

倪肖丁

《薄冰英语惯用法词典》（商务印书馆国际有限公司2009）第64页在辨析answer与reply的区别时指出：answer和reply作“答复”、“（以行动）回答”解时往往可换用。例如I cannot answer (或reply) to your question. 我不能回答你的问题。但不可以说* I'm sorry that I didn’t answer to your letter earlier but I have been very busy.(“回信”的answer是及物动词，应该把to去掉)  

难道后接letter时answer是及物的，接question时就不及物了吗？我们在什么地方见过answer to someone’s question这种用法呢？

实际上，无论后接letter还是question，answer都是及物动词，不用介词to。这是现代英语基础常识，本来是没必要论证的。但《薄冰英语惯用法词典》是著名学者和著名出版社强强联合产生的英语学习工具书，简单地用一个No对其予以否定似有不敬之嫌。  

幸好一些案头英文工具书对此是有提醒的。例如The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary(2007)指出： Note that you answer a person, question or letter, not answer to them, but you reply to somebody or something: I'm writing to answer your questions. I'm writing to reply to your questions. I'm writing to answer to your questions.

Longman Dictionary of Common Errors(1996)给出了如下错误句和正确句的对照组：

☓ It has taken them almost two months to answer to my letter.

√ It has taken them almost two months to answer my letter.

☓ I couldn't answer to the last two questions.

√ I couldn't answer the last two questions.

☓ My job involves cooking, cleaning and answering to the door bell.

√ My job involves cooking, cleaning and answering the door bell.

该书然后指出：answer sb/sth (WITHOUT to): 'Have you answered their letter yet?'    至于answer和 a question/ the question/your question之间不用to的正面例句则俯拾皆是，应该不必再罗列了。

因此，《薄冰英语惯用法词典》例句I cannot answer to your question是错误的，应该把to删除。