Η ιστορία είναι φανταστική.

The story is imaginary.

Breakdown of Η ιστορία είναι φανταστική.

• είμαι: to be
• η ιστορία: the story
• φανταστικός: imaginary

Questions & Answers about Η ιστορία είναι φανταστική.

Why does the sentence start with Η? What does it do?

Η is the definite article in Greek, meaning the.

In this sentence, Η ιστορία means the story.

A useful thing to know is that Greek articles change depending on gender, number, and case. Here:

• η = the for a feminine singular noun in the nominative case
• ιστορία is a feminine singular noun

So Η ιστορία is literally the story.

Why is ιστορία feminine?

Greek nouns have grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter. This is a normal part of Greek grammar and does not necessarily mean the thing itself is biologically female.

ιστορία is simply a feminine noun, so it uses:

• the feminine article η
• feminine adjective forms, such as φανταστική

You often have to learn the gender along with each noun.

What is είναι? Does it change for different people?

είναι means is here. It is the verb to be.

In Modern Greek, είναι is used for:

• he is
• she is
• it is
• they are

So in this sentence, Η ιστορία είναι φανταστική means The story is fantastic.

Unlike English, Greek does not need a separate word like it in this sentence. The subject Η ιστορία is already stated.