Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή.

It is not easily believed that this story is true.

Breakdown of Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή.

• είμαι: to be
• αυτός: this
• δεν: not
• ότι: that
• εύκολα: easily
• η ιστορία: the story
• πιστεύομαι: to be believed
• αληθινός: true

Questions & Answers about Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή.

Why is πιστεύεται in the passive voice here, and how should I understand it in English?

Πιστεύεται is the 3rd person singular, present tense, passive voice of πιστεύω (to believe).

• πιστεύω = I believe
• πιστεύεται = it is believed / is believed

Greek often uses the passive like this impersonally, without a clear subject, to mean things like:

• Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα ότι…
  → It is not easily believed that…
  → People don’t easily believe that…
  → It’s hard to believe that…

So the passive here doesn’t mean someone specific is believing; it describes how believable the statement is in general.

Who or what is the subject of πιστεύεται in this sentence?

Syntactically, the whole ότι-clause functions as the thing that is (not) believed:

• ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή
  = that this story is true

So you can think of an underlying structure like:

• That this story is true is not easily believed.

In practice, Greeks experience this as an impersonal sentence: there is no concrete person or thing doing the believing, so many teachers will simply say “this is an impersonal passive construction” and leave it at that.

What exactly does εύκολα mean here, and why is it after the verb?

Εύκολα is an adverb meaning easily.

• Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα
  = It is not easily believed / You don’t easily believe it

Position:

• The usual, neutral order is verb + adverb:
  πιστεύεται εύκολα, μιλάει καλά, τρέχει γρήγορα.
• You could move it for emphasis:
  Δε(ν) εύκολα πιστεύεται ότι… – more literary/marked, stressing easily.

So the placement after πιστεύεται is the most natural and common.

How does this sentence compare to Δεν είναι εύκολο να πιστέψει κανείς ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή?

They are very close in meaning:

• Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή.
  → It is not easily believed that this story is true.
  Or more naturally: It’s hard to believe this story is true.

• Δεν είναι εύκολο να πιστέψει κανείς ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή.
  → It is not easy for one/for someone to believe that this story is true.

Differences:

• The original sentence is more compact and impersonal, using a passive verb.
• The κανείς version makes the “generic person” (one / someone) explicit and sounds a bit more explanatory.

Both are correct and common; the nuance difference is small.

What does ότι do here, and can I replace it with πως?

Here ότι is a conjunction meaning that, introducing a content clause:

• ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή
  = that this story is true

You can usually replace ότι with πως (also that) in modern Greek:

• Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή.
• Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα πως αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή.

Both are fine. Very roughly:

• ότι feels a bit more neutral / slightly formal.
• πως often feels a bit more colloquial / conversational.

Important: this ότι has no comma. It is not the pronoun ό,τι (whatever).

Why is it αυτή η ιστορία and not η αυτή ιστορία like in English “this story”?

Modern Greek word order with demonstratives is different from English:

• αυτή η ιστορία
  literally: this the story → this story
• η ιστορία αυτή
  literally: the story this → this story (with a slightly different emphasis)

The typical patterns are:

• αυτή η ιστορία – neutral: this story
• η ιστορία αυτή – often a bit more emphatic: this story (in particular)

η αυτή ιστορία is wrong in modern Greek.

Why is αληθινή in the feminine form, and what is it agreeing with?

Αληθινή is the feminine singular form of the adjective αληθινός (true, real).

Adjectives in Greek agree with the noun in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• η ιστορία = feminine, singular, nominative
• So the adjective must match: αληθινή (fem. sg. nom.)

You would get:

• ο μύθος είναι αληθινός – the myth is true (masc.)
• το γεγονός είναι αληθινό – the fact is true (neuter)
• η ιστορία είναι αληθινή – the story is true (feminine)

Could we say Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα αυτή η ιστορία instead? What changes?

Yes, that is also correct, but the structure and nuance change:

• Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα αυτή η ιστορία.
  Literally: This story is not easily believed.
  The story itself is the thing that “is believed / not believed.”

• Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή.
  Literally: It is not easily believed that this story is true.
  The statement “this story is true” is what is hard to believe.

In everyday meaning, they are very close, but:

• The version with ότι focuses more on the truth of the story as a statement.
• The version without ότι focuses more on the story itself being unbelievable.

Is this sentence formal, neutral, or colloquial? How might someone say this more casually?

Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή is neutral and fits both spoken and written Greek. It’s slightly on the careful/standard side, but not stiff.

More colloquial alternatives:

• Δύσκολα το πιστεύεις ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή.
  (You hardly believe that this story is true.)

• Δύσκολο να πιστέψεις ότι αυτή η ιστορία είναι αληθινή.
  (Hard to believe this story is true.)

These keep the same idea but sound more like everyday speech.

Is the present tense πιστεύεται here about “right now”, or is it more general?

Here the present tense is gnomic / general present: it describes a general fact, not a momentary action.

• Δεν πιστεύεται εύκολα…
  = In general, people don’t easily believe that… / it is (generally) hard to believe that…

You could change tense to talk about a specific past situation:

• Δεν πιστεύτηκε εύκολα ότι αυτή η ιστορία ήταν αληθινή.
  = It was not easily believed that this story was true.

But in the original sentence, the present describes a general judgment about the story’s believability.