Abstract: Starting from general expressions of well-chosen symmetric nuclear matter quantities derived for both zero-and finite-range effective theories, we derive some universal relations between them. We first showthat, independently of the range, the two-body contribution is enough to describe correctly the saturation mechanism but gives an effective mass value around m(*)/m similar or equal to 0.4 when the other properties of the saturation point are set near their generally accepted values. Then, we show that a more elaborated interaction (for instance, an effective two-body density-dependent term on top of the pure two-body term) is needed to reach the accepted value m(*)/m similar or equal to 0.7-0.8.