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The article says that running is good for your health.

Can "the article says" be translated directly with "l'article dit ..."? So

L'article dit que courir est bon pour votre santé.

What would be some other equivalent ways of translating this?

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    Oui, c'est correct. I'd just rather write, bon pour la santé since French does not use possessive adjectives where English does. (Je me brosse les dents → I'm brushing my teeth.)
    – None
    Commented Oct 19, 2016 at 6:09

2 Answers 2

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Your translation is grammatically correct so "L'article dit que ..." works in this case, it's understandable and good if you want to translate literaly (but still correctly).

However, you might want to use a better verb like "expliquer" : "L'article explique que courir est bon pour votre santé". "Expliquer" means "explain" but it is more idiomatic here.

[EDIT] About the "votre santé", it is true that "la santé" would also be better. The translation is still okay without this modification.

[EDIT2] IMPORTANT Using "dit" is neutral whereas "expliquer" can be used to say that the article explains in details. The best formula here would be D'après, used like this :

D'après l'article, courir est bon pour la santé

This sentence now says that the article as a whole states that running is good for your health.

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    Yeah I agree on that point. I'll edit my post. Thanks.
    – matthieusb
    Commented Oct 19, 2016 at 14:14
  • On dit la santé en français, pas votre santé, normalement, pour les idées générales.
    – Lambie
    Commented Oct 19, 2016 at 15:37
  • Oui je suis d'accord, c'est juste que ce n'est pas incorrect comme traduction.
    – matthieusb
    Commented Oct 19, 2016 at 18:54
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One could use

Selon cet article

and close to @matthieusb proposal, I think that

D'après cet article

could fit as well.

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