Learn Hardcore French: Pour moi, le bonheur est simple : lire un roman dans le jardin. - For me, happiness is simple: reading a novel in the garden.

Pour moi is very common in spoken French, a bit more personal and subjective (“for me personally”).
À mon avis sounds like you’re giving an opinion that might be discussed or debated.
Selon moi is a bit more formal/literary.

All three are grammatically correct here; the choice is mostly about tone and style.

Why is it le bonheur and not just bonheur without an article, like English “happiness”?

In French, abstract nouns (like happiness, love, freedom) usually take the definite article when you talk about them in a general way.

Le bonheur est simple.
Literally: The happiness is simple.
Natural English: Happiness is simple.

So:

Le bonheur, l’amour, la liberté
→ in general, as concepts: happiness, love, freedom.

You normally cannot drop the article the way English often does. Saying just « Bonheur est simple » is incorrect in standard French.

Why is it est simple : lire un roman… and not something like est simple de lire un roman…?

In this sentence, “lire un roman dans le jardin” is acting like a definition or explanation of what “happiness” is for the speaker.

Structure:

Le bonheur est simple : [infinitive clause]
Le bonheur, pour moi, c’est simple : [infinitive clause]

French often uses the infinitive directly after verbs like être to define or describe:

Vivre, c’est apprendre. = To live is to learn.
Le mieux, c’est d’attendre. / Le mieux, c’est attendre. = The best thing is to wait.

You could say:

Pour moi, il est simple de lire un roman dans le jardin.
= For me, it is easy/simple to read a novel in the garden.

…but then the meaning changes: now you’re saying reading a novel is easy, not that happiness itself is reading a novel.

So est simple : lire un roman… is more like:

Happiness is simple: (it’s) reading a novel in the garden.

Why is lire (the infinitive) used here instead of a “-ing” form like English “reading”?

French doesn’t have a direct grammatical equivalent of the English “-ing” form used as a noun (a gerund, e.g. reading, swimming, cooking as activities).

Instead, French commonly uses the infinitive for that purpose:

Lire = reading (as an activity)
Manger = eating
Voyager = traveling

In this sentence:

lire un roman dans le jardin
literally: to read a novel in the garden
functionally: reading a novel in the garden.

So the French infinitive often corresponds to “to _” or “_-ing” in English, depending on context.

Why is it un roman and not un livre? What’s the difference?

Un livre = a book (general word: any kind of book)
Un roman = specifically a novel, a fictional narrative

So:

lire un livre = to read a book (could be anything: a textbook, a biography, etc.)
lire un roman = to read a novel (implies fiction, a story)

Using un roman makes the image more precise: the person finds happiness specifically in reading a novel, not just any book.

Why is it dans le jardin and not au jardin or dans mon jardin?

All of these are possible, but they don’t feel exactly the same:

dans le jardin
- literally: in the garden
- neutral, could be the garden we both know about (e.g. the garden at home).
- Very common: lire dans le jardin, jouer dans le jardin, etc.
dans mon jardin
- in my garden (specifically the speaker’s own garden)
- Feels more personal and concrete: you picture the person’s own backyard.
au jardin
- literally: at the garden
- Today, au jardin can sound a bit more literary or old‑fashioned in many contexts, or can refer more to “the garden area” in some dialects/contexts.
- Much more common is au jardin public (in/at the public garden/park).

In everyday modern French, dans le jardin is the most neutral and natural here.

Why is there a comma after pour moi? Is that required?

Yes, it is standard and natural to put a comma after such an introductory phrase:

Pour moi, le bonheur est simple.
En général, les Français dînent tard.
Dans ce cas, il vaut mieux attendre.

This comma:

separates a discourse marker or introductory phrase from the main clause,
makes the sentence clearer and easier to read.

Writing Pour moi le bonheur est simple without the comma is not a serious grammar mistake in informal writing, but it’s less standard and less clear. In correct written French, the comma is expected.

Why is there a space before the colon in French: simple : lire un roman?

In French typography, it is standard to put a (usually non‑breaking) space before certain punctuation marks, including:

: ; ? !

So you write:

simple : lire un roman…
Question : que faire ?
Attention !

In English, you do not put a space before : ? !, but in French you normally do. This is a typographical convention, not a grammatical one, but it’s important for correct written French.

Is bonheur masculine or feminine, and how does that affect simple?

Bonheur is masculine: le bonheur.

The adjective simple has the same form for masculine singular and feminine singular:

masculine singular: simple
feminine singular: simple
masculine plural: simples
feminine plural: simples

So in le bonheur est simple:

le bonheur → masculine singular
simple → masculine singular form (which happens to look the same as the feminine singular form)

If the noun were plural, you’d add -s:

Les bonheurs sont simples. (more of a stylistic or poetic phrase)

Could we also say Pour moi, c’est simple : lire un roman dans le jardin? Is that different?

Yes, that’s possible and natural, but there is a small change in focus.

Original:

Pour moi, le bonheur est simple : lire un roman dans le jardin.
→ Directly defines happiness:
For me, happiness is simple: reading a novel in the garden.

Variant:

Pour moi, c’est simple : lire un roman dans le jardin.
→ Focuses more on the situation / idea being simple:
For me, it’s simple: (it’s) reading a novel in the garden.

Both are correct, and in everyday speech the c’est simple version may sound a bit more casual. The original sentence is slightly more explicit and “literary” because it clearly names le bonheur.