L’état des lieux d’entrée précède l’état des lieux de sortie.

In everyday French, un état des lieux is a fixed expression, especially in housing and rental contexts. It means the official inspection/report describing the condition of a property.

It appears twice because the sentence is contrasting two different inspections:

• l’état des lieux d’entrée = the check-in / move-in inspection
• l’état des lieux de sortie = the check-out / move-out inspection

French often repeats the full noun phrase for clarity in formal or legal-style writing.

Grammatically, des here comes from de + les, so literally it looks like state of the places. But you should really learn état des lieux as a set phrase, not word by word.

Historically and literally, it refers to a description of the state of the premises/places. In modern usage, especially in renting, it functions as one unit meaning property condition report or inspection report.

So yes, des is technically of the, but the whole expression is idiomatic.

This is mostly about sound and spelling.

• de entrée becomes d’entrée because French usually elides de before a vowel sound.
• sortie begins with a consonant, so it stays de sortie.

So:

• de + entrée → d’entrée
• de + sortie → de sortie

This is the same kind of change you see in:

• de + eau → d’eau
• de + hiver → d’hiver

For the same reason: elision before a vowel.

The noun état begins with a vowel sound, so:

• le état becomes l’état

French avoids the clash of two vowel sounds next to each other when possible.

You see this very often:

• le ami → l’ami
• la école → l’école
• le appartement → l’appartement

Because the subject of the sentence is L’état des lieux d’entrée, and the head noun there is état, which is singular.

Even though lieux is plural inside the expression, the whole subject is still singular:

• L’état ... précède ...

So the verb agrees with état, not with lieux.

This is similar to English in a phrase like The condition of the rooms is...
Even though rooms is plural, the main noun condition is singular, so the verb is singular.

Précède is the present indicative of the verb précéder.

French often uses the present tense to state general facts, procedures, or rules. Here, the sentence is not describing one particular event happening right now; it is stating a general rule/order:

• the move-in inspection comes before the move-out inspection

So the present tense works just like English in sentences such as:

• Water boils at 100°C.
• The introduction comes before the conclusion.

Yes, it is very close to English precede.

Précéder means to come before, either in time, order, or sequence.

Examples:

• Le printemps précède l’été. = Spring comes before summer.
• Le chapitre 2 précède le chapitre 3. = Chapter 2 comes before chapter 3.

It is a fairly formal or neutral word. In everyday speech, French speakers might also use other ways to express sequence, but précéder is perfectly correct here, especially in formal or administrative language.

Yes. It sounds formal, administrative, and typical of rental documents.

Expressions like these are very common in:

• leases
• housing regulations
• official notices
• tenancy paperwork

A French speaker would recognize this as the kind of wording used in a document, not casual conversation.

In casual speech, someone might say something simpler, but in official writing this phrasing is natural.

Yes, French could avoid the repetition, depending on the context.

For example, if the meaning is already clear, someone might say something like:

• L’état des lieux d’entrée précède celui de sortie.

Here, celui stands in for l’état des lieux.

However, repeating the full expression is often preferred in formal writing because it is clearer and leaves no ambiguity.

A careful pronunciation would be approximately:

lay-tah deh lyuh dan-tray pray-sed lay-tah deh lyuh duh sohr-tee

A few useful pronunciation points:

• L’état: the t links smoothly to the next vowel sound
• lieux sounds roughly like lyuh
• d’entrée has the nasal sound in en
• précède is pronounced with the stress pattern typical of French, not like the English word precede
• sortie sounds roughly like sor-tee

If you want to sound more natural, try reading it in groups:

• L’état des lieux d’entrée
• précède
• l’état des lieux de sortie

French normally puts the main noun first and then adds modifiers after it.

So the structure is:

• état des lieux = the inspection/report
• d’entrée = specifying that it is the move-in one

This is very common in French. Instead of putting descriptive words before the noun as English often does, French often adds them after:

• la porte d’entrée = the front/entry door
• les frais de transport = transport costs
• un certificat de naissance = a birth certificate

So état des lieux d’entrée is the normal French pattern: main thing first, type/function after.

Yes, it is the same French word, but the meaning depends on context.

Entrée can mean:

• entrance
• entry
• starter/appetizer
• arrival/admission

In état des lieux d’entrée, it refers to the beginning of occupancy: when the tenant enters or moves into the property.

Likewise, sortie means exit/departure, so:

• d’entrée = at move-in
• de sortie = at move-out

So the pair entrée / sortie marks the two stages of a tenancy very neatly.