Breakdown of Ma tante dit que marcher chaque jour est bon pour les jambes et pour le dos.
Questions & Answers about Ma tante dit que marcher chaque jour est bon pour les jambes et pour le dos.
In French, possessive adjectives (mon, ma, mes, etc.) agree with the gender and number of the thing owned, not with the owner.
- tante (aunt) is a feminine singular noun.
- Therefore you must use ma (feminine singular): ma tante.
You would use mon only with masculine singular nouns (e.g. mon oncle) or with a feminine noun starting with a vowel sound (e.g. mon amie), but tante starts with a consonant, so it stays ma tante.
After dire when you report what someone says, French normally uses dire que + clause:
- Ma tante dit que… = My aunt says that…
You cannot say ma tante dit marcher chaque jour est bon… – that is ungrammatical.
If you say ma tante dit de marcher chaque jour, that changes the meaning: it’s closer to my aunt tells (me/us/people) to walk every day (an instruction), not my aunt says that walking every day is good (a statement of opinion).
In marcher chaque jour est bon…, the whole phrase marcher chaque jour is the subject of the verb est:
- Marcher chaque jour = walking every day
- est bon = is good
French uses the infinitive where English uses the -ing form (a gerund):
- Marcher chaque jour est bon pour la santé.
= Walking every day is good for your health.
You cannot say que marche chaque jour est bon… here; a finite verb (marche) would need its own subject (je, tu, il, etc.). Here, marcher as an infinitive is acting like a noun (the act of walking).
The verb est and the adjective bon agree with the subject of the verb, not with the words after pour.
- Subject: marcher chaque jour (singular: one activity)
- Therefore: est bon (3rd person singular, masculine singular adjective)
The parts with pour les jambes et pour le dos are just prepositional phrases; they do not control agreement.
If you changed the subject to a plural noun, you would change the agreement:
- Les exercices quotidiens sont bons pour les jambes et le dos.
(Daily exercises are good for the legs and the back.)
Bon is an adjective, while bien is mainly an adverb.
- bon describes a noun or idea: good, beneficial, tasty
- C’est bon pour la santé. – It’s good for your health.
- bien usually describes a verb (how something is done): well
- Elle marche bien. – She walks well.
So when you say something is good for something, French uses bon pour:
- Marcher chaque jour est bon pour les jambes et pour le dos.
You can say C’est bien de marcher chaque jour, but there bien expresses more a general approval (it’s a good/positive thing to walk every day), not “good for the legs/back” specifically.
Both are very common and both usually translate as “every day”:
- chaque jour – literally each day, slightly more formal or precise
- tous les jours – literally all the days, very common and neutral
In most everyday contexts they are interchangeable:
- Marcher chaque jour est bon pour la santé.
- Marcher tous les jours est bon pour la santé.
Nuance: chaque jour can feel a bit more like each individual day, but in this sentence there’s no real change in meaning.
French very often uses the definite article (le, la, les) with body parts when it’s already clear whose body we are talking about.
English tends to use possessives:
- good for your legs and your back
French uses:
- bon pour les jambes et pour le dos
The context (talking about health or exercise) makes it obvious we mean your/the legs and back in general. You would use possessives (ses jambes, son dos) if you wanted to emphasize ownership or contrast with someone else’s body:
- Bon pour ses jambes, mais mauvais pour ses genoux.
Good for her legs, but bad for her knees.
With the meaning “good/beneficial for”, French uses bon pour:
- bon pour la santé – good for your health
- bon pour les yeux – good for the eyes
- bon pour les jambes – good for the legs
Bon à exists but has other meanings:
- bon à manger – good to eat
- bon à rien – good for nothing (useless)
So in this sentence, because we mean “beneficial to the legs and back”, bon pour is the correct structure.
You do not have to repeat pour. Both are grammatically correct:
- … est bon pour les jambes et le dos.
- … est bon pour les jambes et pour le dos.
In practice, French speakers more often say it once:
- Marcher chaque jour est bon pour les jambes et le dos.
Repeating pour can sound a bit heavier and is usually reserved for emphasis or very careful speech.
When you talk in general about “the back” as a body part, French uses the singular:
- le dos – the back
You use the plural les dos only when you really mean several backs (for example, talking about different people or animals):
- Les médecins examinent les dos des patients.
The doctors are examining the patients’ backs.
In this sentence, we’re speaking generally about the human back, so le dos is normal.
Yes. Grammatically, Marcher chaque jour est bon pour les jambes et le dos is a complete and correct sentence.
- With Ma tante dit que…, you are reporting what your aunt says.
- Without it, you are simply stating the general fact/opinion yourself.
Some natural variations:
- Marcher tous les jours est bon pour les jambes et le dos.
- C’est bon pour les jambes et le dos de marcher chaque jour.
Approximate guide (in simple English terms):
- tante – roughly “tont”; nasal an sound, final e is not pronounced.
ma tante – “mah tont”
marcher – “mar-shay”;
- r is the French throaty r,
- er at the end sounds like é (like -ay in say).
jambes – roughly “zhomb”;
- j is like the s in measure,
- am is nasal (like French an),
- final -es is silent; les jambes has a liaison: lé-zhomb.
dos – simply “do”;
- s is silent in the singular,
- le dos – “luh do”.
Putting it together slowly:
- Ma tante dit que marcher chaque jour est bon pour les jambes et pour le dos.
→ “Mah tont dee kuh mar-shay shak zhoor eh bon poor lé zhomb eh poor luh do.”