Παλιά ήταν δύσκολο, αλλά τώρα είναι πιο εύκολο.

to be

Breakdown of Παλιά ήταν δύσκολο, αλλά τώρα είναι πιο εύκολο.

• τώρα: now
• αλλά: but
• πιο: more

Questions & Answers about Παλιά ήταν δύσκολο, αλλά τώρα είναι πιο εύκολο.

What exactly does Παλιά mean here? Is it an adjective like “old” or an adverb like “in the past”?

In this sentence Παλιά is an adverb and means “in the past / back then / formerly.”

• It comes from the adjective παλιός (old), but when used alone like this at the beginning of a sentence it functions adverbially: it tells you when something was difficult.
• So Παλιά ήταν δύσκολο = “In the past, it was difficult.”
• Other near-synonyms are κάποτε, στο παρελθόν, but παλιά is very common in everyday speech.

As a capitalized word here (Παλιά), it’s just because it starts the sentence. Normally you would write παλιά in the middle of a sentence.

Why isn’t there a word for “it” in ήταν δύσκολο? In English we say “It was difficult.”

Greek often leaves out subject pronouns; it’s what linguists call a “pro‑drop” language.

• Ήταν δύσκολο literally is just “was difficult”, but the subject “it” is understood from context.
• The verb form ήταν already tells us it’s 3rd person singular (he/she/it), so adding αυτό (it) is usually unnecessary:
  
  • Ήταν δύσκολο = “It was difficult.”
  • Τώρα είναι πιο εύκολο = “Now it is easier.”

You would only add αυτό (it) or a specific noun if you wanted to be very explicit or for emphasis.

Which verb form is ήταν exactly? Why do we use ήταν and not είναι or something else for “was”?