Pouvez-vous vérifier si la pièce jointe est lisible, madame? J’ai peur d’avoir envoyé le mauvais fichier.

Pouvez-vous is the inverted question form of vous pouvez.

• Vous pouvez = you can / you are able to
• Pouvez-vous...? = Can you...?

In formal French, inversion is a very common way to ask polite questions, especially in writing:

• Vous pouvez vérifier. = You can check.
• Pouvez-vous vérifier ? = Can you check?

The hyphen is required in inversion: Pouvez-vous.

This sounds polite and appropriate in a professional message.

Vous is used because the speaker is addressing someone formally.

In French, tu is informal and singular, while vous is either:

• formal singular, or
• plural

Since the sentence also includes madame, this is clearly formal singular. In English, we just say you, but French makes this distinction.

So:

• Peux-tu vérifier ? = Can you check? (informal)
• Pouvez-vous vérifier ? = Can you check? (formal)

Here, vérifier si means to check whether / to check if.

• vérifier = to check, verify
• si = if / whether

So:

• vérifier si la pièce jointe est lisible = check whether the attachment is readable

This is a very common structure in French:

• Vérifiez si la porte est fermée. = Check whether the door is closed.
• Je ne sais pas si c’est vrai. = I don’t know if it’s true.

Here si does not mean “yes”; it means if / whether.

La pièce jointe means the attachment in an email or message.

Literally:

• pièce can mean piece
• jointe comes from joindre, meaning joined / attached

So the expression literally suggests the attached item, but in normal usage it simply means attachment.

This is the standard French term in email contexts. You may also see:

• une pièce jointe = an attachment
• les pièces jointes = the attachments

Lisible means readable / legible.

So:

• la pièce jointe est lisible = the attachment is readable / legible

This is a useful adjective for documents, scans, screenshots, handwriting, or PDFs.

Examples:

• Ce document est lisible. = This document is readable.
• L’image n’est pas lisible. = The image isn’t clear/readable.

Because pièce is feminine singular, the adjective might look like it should change, but lisible has the same form in both masculine and feminine singular, so you just see lisible.

French often puts forms of address like madame, monsieur, or docteur at the end of a sentence, especially in polite speech and writing.

So:

• Pouvez-vous vérifier..., madame ?

means the same as:

• Madame, pouvez-vous vérifier...?

Both are possible, but putting madame at the end can sound very natural and polite.

The comma shows that madame is being used as direct address, not as part of the grammar of the sentence.

Yes, literally J’ai peur means I have fear, but idiomatically it means:

• I’m afraid
• I’m worried

So:

• J’ai peur d’avoir envoyé le mauvais fichier. = I’m afraid I sent the wrong file.

This expression is extremely common in French. It can express fear in a strong sense, but very often it simply means concern or worry.

Examples:

• J’ai peur d’être en retard. = I’m afraid I’ll be late.
• J’ai peur que ce soit trop tard. = I’m afraid it may be too late.

Because the speaker is referring to something that happened before the feeling of worry. They are afraid that they already sent the wrong file.

French uses the past infinitive here:

• avoir envoyé = to have sent

After avoir peur de, this becomes:

• j’ai peur d’avoir envoyé... = I’m afraid I have sent / I may have sent...

If you said j’ai peur d’envoyer, that would mean I’m afraid of sending or I’m afraid I’m going to send, which is a different idea.

So:

• J’ai peur d’envoyer le mauvais fichier. = I’m afraid of sending the wrong file.
• J’ai peur d’avoir envoyé le mauvais fichier. = I’m afraid I sent the wrong file.

Avoir envoyé is the past infinitive in French.

It is formed with:

• infinitive of avoir or être
• • past participle

Here:

• avoir
  • envoyé = avoir envoyé = to have sent

This structure is often used after another verb or expression when you want to show that one action happened earlier:

• Je suis content d’avoir fini. = I’m happy to have finished.
• Elle regrette d’être partie. = She regrets having left.
• J’ai peur d’avoir oublié. = I’m afraid I forgot / I’m afraid I may have forgotten.

So in your sentence, the fear is happening now, but the possible sending happened earlier.

Good question. In avoir envoyé, the past participle envoyé normally does not agree with the subject.

So even though the speaker might be a woman, it still stays:

• j’ai envoyé
• j’ai peur d’avoir envoyé

Agreement with avoir usually happens only in certain cases, especially when a direct object comes before the verb.

That is not happening here, so envoyé stays unchanged.

French usually needs an article where English may omit one.

• le fichier = the file
• un fichier = a file

Here the speaker is referring to the wrong file, meaning the incorrect one in the situation. So French uses the definite article:

• le mauvais fichier

Compare:

• J’ai ouvert un mauvais fichier. = I opened a wrong/bad file.
• J’ai envoyé le mauvais fichier. = I sent the wrong file.

Also, mauvais agrees with fichier, which is masculine singular, so it stays mauvais.

They are related, but not exactly the same.

• la pièce jointe = the attachment, as part of the email
• le fichier = the file itself

So the first sentence asks whether the attached item is readable:

• Pouvez-vous vérifier si la pièce jointe est lisible ?

The second sentence explains the worry:

• J’ai peur d’avoir envoyé le mauvais fichier.

In other words, the speaker may have attached the wrong file to the email.

Yes, it sounds natural, polite, and professional.

Why it sounds formal:

• Pouvez-vous... is a polite question form
• vous is formal
• madame adds respectful address
• J’ai peur d’avoir... is a polite, soft way to express concern

It would fit well in a business email, especially to someone you do not know well or someone you should address formally.

A slightly less formal version might be:

• Pouvez-vous me dire si la pièce jointe est lisible ?

A more direct but still polite version could be:

• Merci de vérifier si la pièce jointe est lisible.

But the original sentence is perfectly appropriate.

Yes, a few useful ones:

• Pouvez-vous: the final z in pouvez is pronounced because it is followed by vous. There is a liaison sound: pou-vay voo
• vérifier: the é sounds like ay
• pièce jointe: pièce has a short sound like pyess, and jointe sounds roughly like zhwant
• J’ai peur: J’ai sounds like zhay
• d’avoir: the de becomes d’ before a vowel
• envoyé: pronounced roughly ahn-vwah-yay

Also notice the rhythm of the question:

• Pouvez-vous vérifier si la pièce jointe est lisible, madame ?

French intonation in polite questions like this often rises toward the end, especially in speech.

No, not in this structure.

After vérifier, if you mean check whether, French uses si:

• vérifier si la pièce jointe est lisible

Using que here would be ungrammatical.

However, que is used in other structures, for example:

• Je pense que la pièce jointe est lisible. = I think the attachment is readable.

So:

• si = whether / if
• que = that

They are not interchangeable here.