Nous avons failli signer trop vite, alors nous relisons toujours le bail.

In French, faillir + infinitive is a very common way to say to almost do something.

So:

• Nous avons failli signer = We almost signed

Literally, it is more like We failed by a small margin to sign, but in modern usage it simply means almost signed.

You can sometimes use presque with a verb, but faillir + infinitive is especially natural for near-misses:

• J’ai failli tomber = I almost fell
• Il a failli oublier = He almost forgot

So avons failli signer is the standard and idiomatic structure here.

Because after faillir, French normally uses an infinitive.

Structure:

• faillir + infinitive

Examples:

• Elle a failli rire = She almost laughed
• Tu as failli partir = You almost left
• Nous avons failli signer = We almost signed

So failli is the conjugated verb, and signer stays in the infinitive.

Avons failli is the passé composé, which is used here because the sentence refers to a completed past event: they nearly signed at some point in the past.

Breakdown:

• nous avons = we have
• failli = past participle of faillir

Together:

• nous avons failli = we almost did / we nearly did

You would use nous faillions only in a much less common and very different structure. For everyday French, when talking about a specific past near-miss, passé composé is the normal choice.

Trop vite means too quickly / too fast.

In French, adverbs like vite usually come after the verb or after the infinitive phrase they modify.

So:

• signer trop vite = to sign too quickly

This is the natural word order in French.

Compare:

• parler trop vite = to speak too fast
• manger trop vite = to eat too quickly

Here, alors means something like so, therefore, or as a result.

It links the two parts of the sentence:

• We almost signed too quickly,
• so we always reread the lease.

It shows consequence.

Depending on context, alors can also mean then, but here it clearly means so / therefore.

Because the sentence combines:

1. a past event: Nous avons failli signer trop vite
2. a present habit: alors nous relisons toujours le bail

So the idea is:

• In the past, we almost made a mistake.
• Because of that, now we have a habit: we always reread the lease.

This kind of tense shift is very normal in both French and English.

Lire means to read.

Relire means to reread or to read again.

The prefix re- often gives the idea of doing something again:

• faire = to do

• refaire = to do again

• lire = to read
• relire = to reread

So nous relisons toujours le bail means they do not just read it once—they read it again carefully.

Both are possible, but relire is more compact and very natural.

• Nous relisons le bail = We reread the lease
• Nous lisons de nouveau le bail = We read the lease again

French often prefers a re- verb when one exists, especially in everyday usage. So relisons sounds neat and idiomatic.

Yes, toujours literally means always, but in context it often means we make a point of always doing this or we now always do this as a habit.

So here:

• nous relisons toujours le bail

means they consistently reread the lease every time, not necessarily every moment.

It expresses a regular rule or habit.

Le bail means the lease.

It is a masculine noun, which is why it takes le:

• un bail = a lease
• le bail = the lease

It is commonly used for rental agreements, property leases, and similar legal contracts.

Using le suggests a specific lease that both speaker and listener can identify from context.

So:

• le bail = the lease, the specific lease in question
• un bail = a lease, any lease

In this sentence, they mean the particular lease they are dealing with, so le bail makes sense.

Yes. In everyday spoken French, on often replaces nous.

So a very natural spoken version would be:

• On a failli signer trop vite, alors on relit toujours le bail.

This means the same thing.

The version with nous is perfectly correct and can sound a bit more formal or written.

Yes, there are a couple of useful pronunciation points.

• nous avons usually has a liaison: the s in nous sounds like z before avons
  So it sounds like noo-zavon.

• relisons is pronounced roughly ruh-lee-zon.
  The s between vowels sounds like z.

Also:

• bail is pronounced like bye in English.

So the sentence flows roughly like:

Noo-zavon fa-yee see-nyay tro veet, a-lor noo ruh-lee-zon too-zhoor luh bye.

Yes, but the most common pattern learners see is the past form a / as / avons / ont failli + infinitive.

Examples:

• J’ai failli oublier = I almost forgot
• Elle a failli pleurer = She almost cried

Other tenses exist:

• Je vais faillir tomber sounds unusual and not very common
• Je faillis tomber is literary or formal

So for everyday speech, the past construction is the one you should know best.

Yes, but it would not mean exactly the same thing.

• alors here emphasizes consequence: so / as a result
• donc can also mean therefore / so, but often sounds a bit more logical or formal

Also, toujours adds the idea of habit:

• nous relisons toujours le bail = we always reread the lease

Without toujours, you lose that habitual sense.

So alors nous relisons toujours le bail is a good choice because it clearly expresses:

1. a past near-mistake
2. the resulting habit now in place