Breakdown of Mi suegro dice que leer una novela cada mes es un buen hábito para mi sobrina.
Questions & Answers about Mi suegro dice que leer una novela cada mes es un buen hábito para mi sobrina.
In leer una novela cada mes es un buen hábito, the whole phrase leer una novela cada mes acts as the subject of the verb es.
- Literally: Leer una novela cada mes = Reading a novel every month (as an activity)
- That activity is a good habit.
In Spanish, when a verb is used as a general action or concept (like English reading, smoking, studying), it normally appears in the infinitive (leer, fumar, estudiar).
Compare:
- Leer es divertido. = Reading is fun.
- Fumar es malo para la salud. = Smoking is bad for your health.
It is not lee because we are not saying “he/she reads a novel every month”, but rather “reading a novel every month is a good habit.”
It is not lea because this is not a command or wish; it’s a general statement, so we don’t use the subjunctive here.
Bueno is an adjective that has a shortened form buen when it appears directly before a singular masculine noun.
- buen hábito ✅
- hábito bueno ✅
- bueno hábito ❌
This shortening is called apócope. It happens with a few adjectives:
- bueno → buen: un buen amigo
- malo → mal: un mal día
- primero → primer: el primer capítulo
- tercero → tercer: el tercer piso
Because hábito is masculine and singular, and the adjective comes before it, we must say un buen hábito.
Here para mi sobrina means “for my niece” in the sense of benefit: it’s good for her, beneficial to her.
- Es un buen hábito para mi sobrina.
= It’s a good / healthy habit for my niece.
Para is commonly used to express:
- benefit or suitability:
- Es bueno para los niños. = It’s good for children.
- Este trabajo es perfecto para ti. = This job is perfect for you.
If you said Es un buen hábito a mi sobrina, it would sound wrong or unnatural.
A is used more for:
- Indirect objects with verbs:
- Le dio un libro a mi sobrina. = He gave a book to my niece.
- People after certain verbs of motion, effect, or feeling:
- Llamé a mi sobrina. = I called my niece.
So:
- para mi sobrina = good for my niece (benefit) ✅
- a mi sobrina = would usually be an indirect object of a verb, not used with es un buen hábito ❌
Mi suegro means my father-in-law, not stepfather.
- suegro = father-in-law
- suegra = mother-in-law
- yerno = son-in-law
- nuera = daughter-in-law
- cuñado = brother-in-law
- cuñada = sister-in-law
A stepfather would be:
- padrastro = stepfather
- madrastra = stepmother
So the sentence is:
Mi suegro dice... = My father-in-law says...
Novela primarily means novel (a long fictional book).
However, in much of Latin America:
- novela (or telenovela) can also mean a TV soap opera.
In this sentence, because it says leer una novela (to read a novela), the context clearly points to a book, not a TV show.
So here una novela = a (written) novel.
Yes, that is also correct and natural:
- Mi suegro dice que leer una novela cada mes es un buen hábito para mi sobrina.
- Mi suegro dice que es un buen hábito leer una novela cada mes para mi sobrina.
Both are grammatically correct. The difference is just word order and slight emphasis:
leer una novela cada mes es un buen hábito
- Emphasizes the activity itself first:
“Reading a novel each month is a good habit…”
- Emphasizes the activity itself first:
es un buen hábito leer una novela cada mes
- Starts from the idea of “a good habit” and then specifies which habit.
Spanish word order is relatively flexible in these cases; both versions are fully acceptable.
- dice = he says / he is saying (present)
- dijo = he said (simple past)
Mi suegro dice… suggests:
- something he says now, or
- something he often says / generally believes.
If you wanted to report something he said on one particular occasion in the past, you would use:
- Mi suegro dijo que leer una novela cada mes es un buen hábito para mi sobrina.
= My father-in-law said that reading a novel each month is a good habit for my niece.
So:
- Use dice for current or habitual statements.
- Use dijo for a completed action in the past.
Both are correct and both mean “every month”:
- cada mes = each month / every month
- todos los meses = all the months / every month
Nuance:
- cada mes sounds slightly more neutral and compact, and is very common.
- todos los meses is also very common; sometimes it can feel a bit more emphatic: literally every single month.
In most everyday situations, they’re interchangeable:
- Leo una novela cada mes.
- Leo una novela todos los meses.
Both mean: I read a novel every month.
For family members, Spanish almost always uses a possessive adjective (mi, tu, su, nuestro, etc.) to show whose relative it is.
- mi sobrina = my niece
- tu hermana = your sister
- su mamá = his/her/their mom
Saying la sobrina would normally mean “the niece” in a more general or contextual sense, not clearly my niece.
Compare:
- Mi sobrina es muy inteligente. = My niece is very smart. ✅
- La sobrina es muy inteligente. = The niece is very smart. (Which niece? You’d need previous context.)
So in a normal sentence talking about your own family member, mi sobrina is the natural choice.
In Spanish, when you have que introducing a clause, you don’t add a preposition before the verb:
- Dice que leer una novela… ✅
- Dice de que leer una novela… ❌
- Dice que de leer una novela… ❌
The structure is:
- dice que + [clause]
Here, the clause is:
- leer una novela cada mes es un buen hábito para mi sobrina
So:
- Mi suegro dice que leer una novela cada mes es un buen hábito para mi sobrina.
No extra de is needed or allowed after que in this construction.