Learn French: Elle garde sa souplesse en s'étirant tous les jours. - She maintains her flexibility by stretching every day.

Elle garde sa souplesse en s'étirant tous les jours.

She maintains her flexibility by stretching every day.

Breakdown of Elle garde sa souplesse en s'étirant tous les jours.

Questions & Answers about Elle garde sa souplesse en s'étirant tous les jours.

The current lesson teaches the phrase à condition de. How could we rewrite this sentence using that structure?

You could say Elle garde sa souplesse à condition de s'étirer tous les jours (She maintains her flexibility provided she stretches every day). Because the subject of both actions is the same, we use à condition de followed by the infinitive s'étirer, keeping the reflexive pronoun s' to match the subject Elle.

Why do we use en s'étirant here instead of par s'étirer to mean by stretching?

When English uses by plus an -ing verb to explain how a result is achieved, French requires the gerund form, which is en followed by the present participle (the -ant form). The preposition par is generally not used directly with verbs in this way.

Where does the reflexive pronoun go when using the gerund form of a verb like s'étirer?

The reflexive pronoun goes immediately before the present participle, sandwiched between en and the verb. Because the main subject is Elle, we use se, which contracts to s' before the vowel in étirant.

Could we use chaque jour instead of tous les jours at the end of the sentence?

Yes, they are essentially interchangeable here. tous les jours literally means all the days (every day), while chaque jour means each day. tous les jours is slightly more common in everyday spoken French for describing regular habits like this.