L'acord és al contracte.

Because acord is a masculine singular noun, so it normally takes el. But before a vowel sound, el is usually shortened to l'.

• el contracte → starts with a consonant, so no change
• l'acord → starts with a vowel, so el becomes l'

This is very common in Catalan:

• l'home = the man
• l'amic = the friend

Acord is a masculine noun meaning agreement.

So:

• l'acord = the agreement

Be careful not to confuse it with the English idea of accord as a more formal word. In Catalan, acord is a normal everyday noun.

És is the he/she/it form of the verb ser (to be) in the present tense.

Here it matches l'acord, which is singular:

• l'acord és = the agreement is

A few forms of ser in the present:

• jo sóc = I am
• tu ets = you are
• ell / ella és = he / she is

So és is used because the subject is third-person singular.

Al is a contraction of a + el.

• a = to / at / in
• el = the
• a + el = al

So:

• al contracte literally = in/to the contract

This contraction is required in normal Catalan when a is followed by el.

Compare:

• al llibre = in the book
• al contracte = in the contract

Catalan often uses a where English would use in or inside, especially with location in many expressions.

So és al contracte is a normal way to say it is in the contract.

Depending on context, learners may also see en el contracte, but al contracte is very natural and common here.

So the key idea is:

• English: in the contract
• Catalan: often al contracte

You should not expect Catalan prepositions to match English one-for-one.

This is the normal Catalan word order:

subject + verb + complement

• L'acord = subject
• és = verb
• al contracte = location/complement

So it works just like a basic English sentence:

• The agreement is in the contract

Catalan can sometimes change word order for emphasis, but this version is the neutral, standard one.

Contracte is masculine.

That is why it takes el:

• el contracte = the contract

And after a, it becomes:

• al contracte

If it were feminine, you would expect:

• a la ...

It tells you where the agreement is found. In other words, it gives a location or place, though in this case the place is textual rather than physical.

So:

• L'acord = what we are talking about
• és al contracte = where it is / where it appears

This is similar to sentences like:

• La informació és al document. = The information is in the document.
• La resposta és al llibre. = The answer is in the book.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation is:

la-KORD ez al kon-TRAK-te

A few helpful notes:

• acord has stress on the second syllable: a-CORD
• és has an open e sound
• contracte is stressed on trak: con-TRAK-te

Also, l'acord links smoothly because of the apostrophe, so it sounds like one flow rather than two separate words.

Yes. Depending on context, acord can also relate to the idea of harmony, understanding, or being in agreement. But in a sentence like L'acord és al contracte, the most natural meaning is clearly the agreement as a thing mentioned in a contract.

So context decides the exact sense, but here the legal/document meaning is the obvious one.