Learn Hardcore Greek: Στο σεμινάριο οι εθελοντές θα ενημερωθούν για το πώς θα οργανωθεί η επόμενη εκδρομή στο δάσος. - At the seminar the volunteers will be informed about how the next excursion to the forest will be organized.

Even though in English “the volunteers” are the grammatical object of “inform” (“someone will inform the volunteers”), in Greek the verb ενημερώνονται / θα ενημερωθούν is passive, so the volunteers are the grammatical subject in the nominative.

Why is θα ενημερωθούν in the passive voice, and what is its active form?

Θα ενημερωθούν is future passive:

ενημερώνομαι = I am informed / I get informed
θα ενημερωθώ = I will be informed
θα ενημερωθούν = they will be informed

The active verb is ενημερώνω (I inform):

Θα ενημερώσουν τους εθελοντές.
→ They will inform the volunteers.

Using the passive (θα ενημερωθούν) emphasizes the receivers of the information (the volunteers) and leaves the agent either unknown or unimportant:

Στο σεμινάριο οι εθελοντές θα ενημερωθούν…
→ Focus: what will happen to the volunteers (they will be informed).

If we used the active:

Στο σεμινάριο οι διοργανωτές θα ενημερώσουν τους εθελοντές…
→ Focus: who informs whom (the organizers will inform the volunteers).

What is the function of για in θα ενημερωθούν για το πώς…?

Για here means “about” (not “for” in the sense of purpose).

The pattern is:

ενημερώνω κάποιον για κάτι
→ I inform someone about something
ενημερώνομαι για κάτι
→ I am informed / I get informed about something

Examples:

Ενημερώθηκα για τις αλλαγές. – I was informed about the changes.
Θα σε ενημερώσω για το πρόγραμμα. – I’ll inform you about the schedule.

So θα ενημερωθούν για το πώς… literally:
“they will be informed about how…”

What does για το πώς mean exactly, and why do we have το there?

Για το πώς literally is “about the how”, but idiomatically it means “about how”.

Grammatically:

πώς = how
το = a neuter pronoun/article used to nominalize the clause

Το πώς θα οργανωθεί η επόμενη εκδρομή is treated as a thing (a noun-like phrase):
“the way in which the next excursion will be organized / how the next excursion will be organized.”

That whole clause is the object of θα ενημερωθούν για:

Θα ενημερωθούν για το πώς θα οργανωθεί η επόμενη εκδρομή.
→ They will be informed about how the next excursion will be organized.

In modern usage, για το πώς is a very common way to introduce “about how …” clauses.

What is the difference between πώς (with accent) and πως (without accent)?

This is an important distinction:

πώς (with accent) = how, an interrogative word
- Πώς είσαι; – How are you?
- Δεν ξέρω πώς έγινε. – I don’t know how it happened.
πως (without accent) = that, a conjunction (similar to ότι), often after verbs of saying/thinking
- Είπε πως θα έρθει. – He said that he will come.
- Νομίζω πως έχει δίκιο. – I think that he is right.

In the sentence:

για το πώς θα οργανωθεί…

we are talking about how something will be organized, so we must use πώς with an accent.

Why is θα οργανωθεί also passive, and what would the active version look like?

Θα οργανωθεί is future passive of οργανώνω (I organize):

οργανώνω → I organize
οργανώνομαι → I am organized / I get organized
θα οργανωθεί → it will be organized

In the sentence:

το πώς θα οργανωθεί η επόμενη εκδρομή
→ how the next excursion will be organized

The active form would be something like:

το πώς θα οργανώσουν την επόμενη εκδρομή (οι διοργανωτές)
→ how the organizers will organize the next excursion

Passive is preferred here because:

It focuses on the event (the excursion and its organization), not on who organizes it.
The agent is either obvious from context or not important.

Why is it η επόμενη εκδρομή (with η) and not την επόμενη εκδρομή here?

Inside the clause πώς θα οργανωθεί η επόμενη εκδρομή, η επόμενη εκδρομή is the subject of the verb θα οργανωθεί, so it must be in the nominative:

η εκδρομή (nom.) – subject
την εκδρομή (acc.) – object

Compare:

Θα οργανωθεί η εκδρομή. – The excursion will be organized. (subject → nominative)
Θα οργανώσουν την εκδρομή. – They will organize the excursion. (object → accusative)

So here we use:

η επόμενη εκδρομή (nominative, subject of “will be organized”), not την επόμενη εκδρομή.

Why is επόμενη before εκδρομή? Could we say η εκδρομή η επόμενη?

The normal, neutral word order in Greek is:

article + adjective + noun
→ η επόμενη εκδρομή (the next excursion)

This is the unmarked way to say “the next excursion.”

You can say η εκδρομή η επόμενη, but:

It sounds more marked/emphatic or stylistic.
It tends to mean “the excursion, the next one (as opposed to others)”, with a contrastive flavor.

In everyday speech, for “the next excursion” you would almost always say:

η επόμενη εκδρομή.

Why is it στο δάσος and not something like εν τω δάσει or another case ending?

Modern Greek uses prepositions + accusative for most locations.

σε + το δάσος → στο δάσος
→ in the forest / to the forest

So στο δάσος grammatically is “in/at/to the forest”, with δάσος in the accusative.

Forms like ἐν τῷ δάσει belong to Ancient Greek, which had a dative case and different prepositional usage. In Modern Greek:

The dative has disappeared.
σε + accusative covers many meanings of “in/at/to”.

Examples in Modern Greek:

Στο σπίτι. – at home / in the house
Στο σχολείο. – at school
Στο πάρκο. – in the park

So στο δάσος is the regular, modern structure.

Could we change the word order and say Οι εθελοντές θα ενημερωθούν στο σεμινάριο…? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

Οι εθελοντές θα ενημερωθούν στο σεμινάριο για το πώς θα οργανωθεί η επόμενη εκδρομή στο δάσος.

The basic meaning remains the same.

The original:

Στο σεμινάριο οι εθελοντές θα ενημερωθούν…

puts Στο σεμινάριο first, which slightly emphasizes the setting (“At the seminar, …”). Greek word order is quite flexible, and moving elements to the front often gives them extra emphasis or sets the scene.

Both orders are natural; the difference is mostly in focus/emphasis, not in factual content.

Why is οι εθελοντές masculine plural, and how would it change if the volunteers were all women?

Εθελοντής is a masculine noun:

ο εθελοντής – the (male) volunteer
οι εθελοντές – the (male or mixed-group) volunteers

Greek uses the masculine plural as the default when:

the group is mixed (men and women), or
gender is not specified.

If the group were explicitly all women, you could use the feminine form:

η εθελόντρια – the female volunteer
οι εθελόντριες – the female volunteers

So the sentence could, in that case, be:

Στο σεμινάριο οι εθελόντριες θα ενημερωθούν για το πώς…

In everyday usage, οι εθελοντές often refers generically to “the volunteers,” regardless of gender, unless you want to stress that they are all women.

What tense/aspect is θα ενημερωθούν and how is it different from θα ενημερώνονται?

Both are future, but with different aspect:

θα ενημερωθούν
– future simple (aorist) passive
– focuses on the completion of the action:
“they will be informed (at some point / as a single event)”
θα ενημερώνονται
– future continuous passive
– focuses on the ongoing or repeated nature of the action:
“they will be being informed / they will keep getting informed”

In this sentence, θα ενημερωθούν is appropriate because we are talking about a one-time, complete action during the seminar: they’ll receive the necessary information. If we were talking about a process happening repeatedly over some period, we’d use θα ενημερώνονται.