Provided is an apparatus and method for communicating a frame in a multi-hop relay cellular communication system. When communicating at a Relay Station (RS), a Downlink (DL) signal is received from a Base Station (BS) and the received DL signal is reconfigured during a first section of a frame. The reconfigured DL signal is transmitted to a Mobile Station (MS) during a second section of the frame. During a third section of the frame, a UL signal is received from the MS and is reconfigured. The reconfigured UL signal is transmitted to the BS during a fourth section of the frame. The RS recovers data from the BS to retransmit only specific data corresponding to the BS. Accordingly, unnecessary retransmission can be prevented and thus resources can be used efficiently.