Learn Hardcore Russian: Эта книга легко переводится на другой язык. - This book is easily translated into another language.

The verb переводится is in a reflexive / passive-like form and means something like “is translated / can be translated”.
So the structure is closer to “This book is easily translated into another language” than to “People easily translate this book…”.

Because книга is the subject of переводится, it must be in the nominative:

Nominative: эта книга – this book (as subject)
Accusative: эту книгу – this book (as direct object)

Here, we don’t have a direct object; the book itself is what “is translated,” so nominative is correct: Эта книга легко переводится…

What does the ending -ся in переводится do here?

The -ся (or -сь after a vowel) is the reflexive clitic. In this sentence it gives a passive / general meaning:

переводит – he/she translates (something)
переводится – is translated / gets translated / can be translated

In other words, переводится suggests:

We are not saying who is doing the translating.
We’re talking about the book’s property: it is easy to translate.

This so‑called reflexive passive is very common in Russian:

Книга читается быстро. – The book is read quickly / is a quick read.
Эта дверь легко открывается. – This door opens easily / is easy to open.

So переводится here is best understood as “is (easily) translated / can be translated.”

Who is actually doing the translating in Эта книга легко переводится…?

The sentence leaves the agent unspecified. It’s understood that people, translators, readers, etc. can translate it, but Russian doesn’t have to mention them.

You could make the agent explicit if you really wanted:

Эта книга легко переводится многими переводчиками. – This book is easily translated by many translators.
Or you could rephrase in an active structure:
Переводчики легко переводят эту книгу на другой язык. – Translators easily translate this book into another language.

But in the original sentence, the focus is on the book’s quality, not on the people:

“As for this book, it is easy to translate.”

What tense is переводится, and why does it feel like “can be translated”?

Переводится is present tense, 3rd person singular, imperfective:

Infinitive: переводить – to translate (imperfective)
3rd person singular: он/она переводит
Reflexive: он/она переводится

In Russian, the present tense imperfective can express:

A general, timeless property or tendency.
Not just “is being translated right now,” but “is (in general) easy to translate.”

So:

Эта книга легко переводится на другой язык.
≈ This book is easy to translate (in general, as a rule).

That’s why in English we often naturally translate it as “can be translated easily” or “is easy to translate.” The “can be” idea is implied by the combination of легко + present imperfective referring to a general quality.

Why is it переводится and not a perfective form like переведётся?

The verb переводить (imperfective) is used here because we are talking about a general, repeatable action / property, not a single completed event.

переводить / переводится (imperfective) – describes processes or typical abilities:
- Эта книга легко переводится… – This book is (in general) easy to translate.
перевести / переведётся (perfective) – focuses on a single completed act:
- Книга скоро переведётся на русский. – The book will soon get translated into Russian (once, at some point).

In the original sentence, we’re not saying “it will be translated (once),” but that whenever someone decides to translate it, the process is easy. That’s why imperfective (переводится) is used.

What exactly is легко here? Why not something like лёгкая?

Легко is an adverb meaning “easily.”

лёгкий – adjective: light, easy
- лёгкая книга – an easy book (easy as a quality of the book)
легко – adverb: easily
- книга легко переводится – the book is translated easily / is easy to translate

In the sentence:

легко modifies the verb переводится, telling us how the action happens (easily).
If you said эта книга лёгкая, that would be “this book is light/easy” (physically or maybe content-wise), not specifically “easy to translate.”

So легко = “in an easy way / easily.”

Can the word order be different? For example, could I say Эта книга переводится легко на другой язык?

Yes, Russian word order is relatively flexible, but there are more natural patterns.

Your original:

Эта книга легко переводится на другой язык.
– Neutral, very natural: subject – adverb – verb – prepositional phrase.

Possible variants:

Эта книга переводится легко на другой язык.
– Grammatically correct. Emphasis is a bit more on the result (“it is translated easily into another language”), but still normal.
Эта книга на другой язык легко переводится.
– Also possible, might sound more stylized or focus on “into another language” as a contrast (as opposed to, say, some specific language).

When learning, it’s safest to keep:

Subject + adverb + verb + complements:
Эта книга легко переводится на другой язык.

But Russian listeners will understand all of these; they just differ slightly in rhythm and emphasis, not in basic meaning.

Why is it на другой язык and not something like в другой язык or a different case?

For languages, Russian almost always uses на + accusative to express “into a language”:

переводить на русский (язык) – translate into Russian
на английский, на французский, на японский …

So:

на другой язык = into another language (direction/result).

Grammatically:

на
- Accusative (другой язык) here indicates a direction / goal / result:
  - From one language onto / into a different language.

Using в другой язык in this context would sound unnatural for translation. With “language as a system,” на is the standard preposition for “into (a language).”

Why is другой язык in the accusative, and how can I see that?

Because of the preposition на, which here requires the accusative to show direction / goal.

Nominative: другой язык – another language
Accusative (masc. inanimate) is the same form: другой язык

So другой язык looks nominative, but in this sentence it is formally accusative because of на with a directional meaning.

Compare:

на другом языке – in another language
Here на
- Prepositional (другом языке) means “in (a language).”
на другой язык – into another language
Here на
- Accusative (другой язык) means “onto / into (a language).”

In your sentence it’s clearly “into another language”, so we use на другой язык.

What is the difference between Эта книга легко переводится на другой язык and Эту книгу легко переводить на другой язык?

Both are correct but have slightly different feel and structure.

Эта книга легко переводится на другой язык.
- Subject: эта книга (nominative).
- Verb: переводится – reflexive, passive-like.
- Focus: a property of the book: “this book is easy to translate.”
- Style: very natural, slightly more descriptive / neutral.
Эту книгу легко переводить на другой язык.
- Эту книгу is now accusative object, not subject.
- The real (logical) subject is implicit “someone”: It is easy (for someone) to translate this book.
- переводить is an infinitive and emphasizes the action itself: “to translate this book is easy.”
- This construction often follows something like:
  Её легко переводить – It’s easy to translate it.

Nuance:

First: “This book, as a book, is easily translatable.”
Second: “Translating this book is easy (for someone).”

Both convey almost the same idea, but the original sentence is more about the book’s inherent translatability.

Could I say Эта книга легко переводима на другой язык instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, переводима is grammatically correct, but it’s more formal and bookish.

переводима – short form of the adjective переводимый (“translatable”).
- Эта книга переводима. – This book is translatable.

So:

Эта книга легко переводима на другой язык. – Literally: This book is easily translatable into another language.

Differences in feel:

легко переводится – very common, neutral, everyday language.
легко переводима – sounds more technical / academic / stylistic, something you might find in criticism, theory, or formal reviews.

In normal spoken Russian, Эта книга легко переводится на другой язык is much more common and natural.

How is переводится formed, and how do I know to spell it with -тся?

Morphologically, переводится breaks down like this:

перевод- – verb stem (from переводить – to translate)
-ит- – 3rd person singular present ending
-ся – reflexive clitic

So:

он переводит – he translates
он переводится – he is translated / it is translated

About spelling -тся / -ться:

If the verb is in the infinitive or imperative, you write -ться:
- переводиться – to be translated (infinitive)
- переводиться! – be translated! (rare, but grammatically possible)
If the verb is a finite form (present/future, 1st/2nd/3rd person), you write -тся:
- книга переводится – the book is translated / can be translated (3rd person singular)

So here it’s переводится with -тся, because it’s 3rd person singular present, not an infinitive.