Breakdown of Je voudrais signer le bail. Par contre, je vais le lire d'abord.
je
I
aller
to go
lire
to read
signer
to sign
Questions & Answers about Je voudrais signer le bail. Par contre, je vais le lire d'abord.
What is the difference between using par contre and en revanche in this sentence?
Both mean "on the other hand" or "however" and are used to show contrast. Par contre is more common in everyday spoken French, while en revanche is slightly more formal and typically used in writing or careful speech. You could easily swap it for en revanche here without changing the meaning, but par contre fits the natural, conversational tone of talking to a landlord.
Why is the object pronoun le placed before lire instead of before vais?
When you have a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive, like vais (am going) and lire (to read), the object pronoun usually goes immediately before the infinitive it belongs to. Since you are reading "it" (the lease), le belongs to lire and is placed right in front of it.
Could I put d'abord at the beginning of the second sentence?
Why use the conditional voudrais here instead of the present tense veux?