L'employé du secrétariat vérifie mon dossier.

French avoids a clash of vowels here. Le becomes l' before a word that starts with a vowel or a mute h.

So:

• le employé ❌
• l'employé ✅

This is called elision. The same thing happens in phrases like:

• l'école
• l'hôtel
• l'ami

Because de + le contracts to du in French.

So:

• de le secrétariat → du secrétariat

This contraction is required in normal French.

A few common contractions are:

• de + le = du
• de + les = des
• à + le = au
• à + les = aux

So l'employé du secrétariat literally has the structure the employee of the office/administrative department.

In this kind of sentence, secrétariat usually refers to an administrative office, school office, department office, or secretarial department, not necessarily a political secretariat in the English sense.

So du secrétariat often means something like:

• from the office
• from the administrative office
• from the secretarial department

The exact English translation depends on context.

Vérifier is the infinitive, meaning to check or to verify.

In the sentence, the verb is conjugated to match the subject l'employé, which is third person singular: he/she checks.

Present tense of vérifier:

• je vérifie
• tu vérifies
• il / elle vérifie
• nous vérifions
• vous vérifiez
• ils / elles vérifient

So l'employé du secrétariat vérifie... means the employee checks...

Because vérifie already means checks / is checking depending on context.

French often uses the simple present where English might use either:

• checks
• is checking

So vérifie can correspond to either one in natural English, depending on the situation.

Because dossier is a masculine noun.

In French, possessive adjectives agree with the gender and number of the thing possessed, not with the owner.

So:

• mon dossier = my file/record
• ma voiture = my car
• mes documents = my documents

Even if the speaker is female, it is still mon dossier, because dossier is masculine.

Dossier often means a file, record, case file, or application file, depending on context.

It does not always mean a physical folder. It can also refer to:

• a student record
• an administrative file
• an application
• a case record

So learners should not assume it always means a paper folder sitting on a desk.

Yes, employé is the masculine form. The feminine form is employée.

• un employé = a male employee
• une employée = a female employee

Because this sentence has l', you cannot tell from the article alone whether it is masculine or feminine, since both become l' before a vowel:

• l'employé
• l'employée

In writing, the final -e in employée shows the feminine form.

Because this is a normal straightforward French statement, and French word order is often similar to English in basic sentences:

• L'employé du secrétariat = subject
• vérifie = verb
• mon dossier = direct object

So the structure is:

The employee + checks + my file

This is one reason the sentence feels relatively familiar to English speakers.

Not exactly, but it is closely related.

du secrétariat literally means of/from the office/administrative department, and it identifies which employee we mean.

Depending on context, English might translate it in several ways:

• the office employee
• the employee from the office
• the administrative staff member
• the employee in the office

So the French phrase is not always translated word-for-word.

The accent in vérifie is an accent aigu: é.

It shows that the vowel is pronounced like ay in a short, clear way, not like a silent e.

So:

• vérifier
• vérifie

both keep that é sound at the start.

A rough pronunciation of vérifie for an English speaker is:

• veh-ree-fee

The accent is part of the spelling and should not be omitted in correct French writing.

A rough guide for an English speaker is:

L'employé du secrétariat vérifie mon dossier
lahm-plwah-yay duh suh-cray-tah-ree-ah veh-ree-fee mohn doh-see-ay

A few helpful notes:

• L'employé flows together because of the elision.
• du is pronounced roughly like dyu or duh depending on how detailed the approximation is.
• mon has a nasal vowel; English does not have an exact equivalent.
• dossier ends with a sound like yay.

If you want to sound more natural, it is best to hear the sentence spoken by a native speaker and repeat it as a chunk.

Sometimes yes, but the nuance can change.

• vérifie = checks, verifies, makes sure something is correct
• contrôle = checks, inspects, monitors, examines more formally or more strictly

For an administrative file, vérifie is very natural if someone is checking that the information is correct or complete.

So vérifie mon dossier suggests reviewing or verifying the file, while contrôle mon dossier can sound a bit more formal or more like inspection.