Learn Hardcore Greek: Στο βουνό είναι ήσυχα, αλλά στο νησί έχει πολλούς τουρίστες. - In the mountain it is quiet, but on the island there are many tourists.

Greek doesn’t normally distinguish “in” vs “on” with different basic prepositions the way English does. Σε covers both, and you choose the English preposition from context when you translate.

So:

Στο βουνό είναι ήσυχα → Up in the mountains it’s quiet.
Στο νησί έχει πολλούς τουρίστες → On the island there are many tourists.

What case are βουνό and νησί in here?

They’re in the accusative singular:

το βουνό (nom./acc. neuter singular – same form)
το νησί (nom./acc. neuter singular – same form)

The preposition σε always takes the accusative. Because neuter nouns often have the same form in nominative and accusative, you don’t see a visible change, but grammatically they’re accusative here:

σε + το βουνό (acc.) → στο βουνό
σε + το νησί (acc.) → στο νησί

Why is it είναι ήσυχα (neuter plural) and not είναι ήσυχο (neuter singular)?

Greek often uses an adjective in the neuter plural as an adverb-like predicate to describe the general situation, atmosphere, conditions, etc.

είναι ήσυχα ≈ it is quiet (here / there / generally)
(Literally “things are quiet.”)

This pattern is common:

Είναι ωραία εδώ. – It’s nice here.
Είναι καλά. – It’s good / Things are good.

You can say:

Στο βουνό είναι ήσυχο.

That sounds a bit more like “The mountain (as a place) is quiet.”
Είναι ήσυχα is more about the overall feeling: the surroundings, the atmosphere, everything is quiet.

What is the subject of είναι in Στο βουνό είναι ήσυχα? There is no noun like “it”.

There’s no explicit subject. Greek often leaves the subject implicit in sentences like this.

You can think of it as:

(Εκεί) στο βουνό είναι ήσυχα.
(There) in the mountains it’s quiet.

In English we add a dummy subject “it” (It’s quiet), but Greek doesn’t need that. The structure is simply:

[Place] + είναι + [neuter plural adjective]

So the “it” of English has no direct word in Greek; it’s built into the verb phrase.

Why is it έχει πολλούς τουρίστες and not είναι πολλοί τουρίστες for “there are many tourists”?

Modern spoken Greek very often uses έχει (from έχω = “to have”) in an impersonal way to mean “there is / there are”:

Στο νησί έχει πολλούς τουρίστες.
Literally: “On the island it has many tourists.”
Meaning: “There are many tourists on the island.”

You can also say:

Στο νησί είναι πολλοί τουρίστες.
Στο νησί υπάρχουν πολλοί τουρίστες.

Υπάρχουν is the most neutral/formal equivalent of “there are”.
Έχει is very common and conversational, especially for talking about the presence of people, things, events:

Στο κέντρο έχει κίνηση. – There’s traffic in the centre.
Αύριο έχει συναυλία. – There’s a concert tomorrow.

Why is it πολλούς τουρίστες and not πολλοί τουρίστες?

Because πολλούς τουρίστες is in the accusative plural masculine, agreeing with τουρίστες, which is also accusative plural masculine.

Nominative: πολλοί τουρίστες (as in “Many tourists are here.”)
Accusative: πολλούς τουρίστες (as in “I see many tourists.” / “There are many tourists.” with έχει)

Here the verb έχει is taking πολλούς τουρίστες as its object, so accusative is required:

έχει + [accusative] → έχει πολλούς τουρίστες

If there are men and women tourists, why is τουρίστες masculine? Is there a feminine form?

Yes, there is a feminine form:

ο τουρίστας – the male tourist
οι τουρίστες – the (male / mixed) tourists
η τουρίστρια – the female tourist
οι τουρίστριες – the (female) tourists

In mixed-gender groups, Greek grammar defaults to the masculine plural:

πολλοί / πολλούς τουρίστες = many tourists (men or mixed group)

If you specifically want to emphasize that they are all women, you can say:

Έχει πολλές τουρίστριες. – There are many (female) tourists.

Why do we use the definite article (το) in στο βουνό and στο νησί if we mean something general like “in the mountains / on an island”?

Greek uses the definite article much more often than English, even for general or typical situations.

Στο βουνό είναι ήσυχα.
Literally: On the mountain it is quiet.
Naturally: Up in the mountains it’s quiet. / In the mountains it’s quiet.
Στο νησί έχει πολλούς τουρίστες.
Literally: On the island there are many tourists.
Depending on context, this can mean “on that island” or just “on (a/the) island” in a general, typical sense.

You can drop the article for a more indefinite sense:

Σε βουνό είναι ήσυχα. – It’s quiet on a mountain (non-specific, rare/focused usage)
Σε νησί έχει πολλούς τουρίστες. – There are many tourists on an island (again, more abstract/rare).

In everyday Greek, στο βουνό / στο νησί are the normal idiomatic ways to talk about these places generally.

Could we change the word order, like Είναι ήσυχα στο βουνό or Πολλούς τουρίστες έχει στο νησί?

Yes, Greek word order is relatively flexible, and these are possible:

Είναι ήσυχα στο βουνό. – also means “It’s quiet in the mountains.”
Here, στο βουνό is just moved to the end; the meaning is the same.
Slight nuance: starting with Στο βουνό puts more emphasis on the location.
Στο νησί πολλούς τουρίστες έχει. – possible but sounds stylistic/poetic or emphatic in everyday speech.
Πολλούς τουρίστες έχει στο νησί. – emphasizes πολλούς τουρίστες (“many tourists it has on the island”).

The original:

Στο βουνό είναι ήσυχα, αλλά στο νησί έχει πολλούς τουρίστες.

is the most neutral, natural order for standard spoken/written Greek.

How do you pronounce ήσυχα and πολλούς?

Approximate pronunciation (in simple Latin letters):

ήσυχα → EE-si-ha
- Stress on the first syllable: Η
- η and υ here both sound like “ee”: [ísiha]
- So: Í-si-ha
πολλούς → po-LOOS
- Stress on the second syllable: λού
- The double λλ is just a longer “l” sound, not two separate syllables.
- So: po-LOOS

Together in the sentence (simplified):

Στο βουνό είναι ήσυχα → sto vu-NO EE-si-ha
αλλά στο νησί έχει πολλούς τουρίστες → a-LA sto nee-SEE E-khi po-LOOS TOO-ree-stes