L'empresa vol contractar el candidat.

Because Catalan usually elides the singular definite article before a word that begins with a vowel.

• la empresa → l'empresa
• el amic → l'amic

So l' can stand for either la or el. You know empresa is feminine from the noun itself, so here l'empresa means the company.

Yes, empresa is a feminine noun.

A few clues:

• It normally takes the feminine article la: la empresa
• Before a vowel, that becomes l'empresa
• If you used an adjective, it would also be feminine:
  l'empresa gran / l'empresa catalana

You cannot tell the gender from l' alone, because l' is used with both masculine and feminine singular nouns before vowels.

Vol is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb voler, meaning to want.

So:

• jo vull = I want
• tu vols = you want
• ell/ella vol = he/she wants
• nosaltres volem = we want
• vosaltres voleu = you all want
• ells/elles volen = they want

In this sentence, l'empresa is singular, so the verb is vol.

Because Catalan, like English, can use a conjugated verb + infinitive structure.

Here:

• vol = wants
• contractar = to hire

So vol contractar means wants to hire.

A very important point: after voler, Catalan uses the infinitive directly. There is no separate word equivalent to English to between the verbs.

• vol contractar = wants to hire
  not vol a contractar

The sentence is in the present tense.

• vol is present tense
• contractar is an infinitive, not a tense form

So the sentence describes a present desire or intention: the company wants to hire the candidate.

Because el is the definite article: the candidate.

• el candidat = the candidate
• un candidat = a candidate

This sentence is talking about a specific candidate, not just any candidate. That is why el is used.

Because el candidat is the direct object of contractar.

In Catalan, you normally say:

• contractar el candidat

not:

• contractar al candidat in this straightforward sentence

This can surprise learners who know Spanish, where a personal a is often used before people. Standard Catalan usually does not use that marker in a simple case like this.

Yes. The noun changes for gender.

• el candidat = the male candidate
• la candidata = the female candidate

So you could say:

• L'empresa vol contractar la candidata.

The article and noun both change to match the gender.

Yes. This is the standard Subject – Verb – Object order:

• L'empresa = subject
• vol contractar = verb phrase
• el candidat = object

That is the most neutral and natural order in Catalan for a sentence like this.

No. The apostrophe is not a sound. It only shows that the vowel of the article has been dropped.

So l'empresa is pronounced as one smooth unit, without saying a separate la.

You should think of it as:

• underlying form: la empresa
• actual written/spoken form: l'empresa

You would not add a pronoun here, because the subject is already clearly stated as l'empresa.

Catalan often omits subject pronouns unless they are needed for emphasis or contrast. Since the noun subject is already present, a pronoun would be unnecessary.

So the natural sentence is simply:

• L'empresa vol contractar el candidat.

Here contractar means to hire or to employ.

In business contexts, it is a very common verb for taking someone on for a job. It is related to the idea of making a contract, but in this sentence the natural meaning is specifically to hire.

So:

• contractar una persona = to hire a person
• contractar personal = to hire staff