La secrétaire me demande une copie du contrat avant de compléter mon dossier.

In French, a singular countable noun usually needs an article, just like the or a/an in English.

So:

• la secrétaire = the secretary
• une secrétaire = a secretary

Using just secrétaire by itself would usually sound incomplete in a normal sentence.

Usually, secrétaire is the same in both masculine and feminine forms. The article shows the gender:

• le secrétaire = the male secretary
• la secrétaire = the female secretary

So in this sentence, la tells you the secretary is female.

Because me is an object pronoun, and in French object pronouns normally come before the conjugated verb.

• La secrétaire me demande... = The secretary asks me...

Compare:

• Il me voit = He sees me
• Elle me parle = She speaks to me

This is different from English, where me usually comes after the verb.

Here, demande comes from demander, which often means to ask for or to request.

So:

• La secrétaire me demande une copie du contrat means the secretary is asking me for a copy of the contract.

A useful thing to remember:

• demander quelque chose à quelqu’un = to ask someone for something
• demander à quelqu’un de + infinitive = to ask someone to do something

In this sentence, it is the first pattern:

• me = from me / of me
• une copie = the thing being requested

Because de + le contracts to du in French.

So:

• de le contrat becomes du contrat

This is a very common contraction:

• de + le = du
• de + les = des

Here:

• une copie du contrat = a copy of the contract

After avant, when the next verb stays in the infinitive, French uses de:

• avant de + infinitive

So:

• avant de compléter = before completing

This is a fixed structure.

Examples:

• avant de partir = before leaving
• avant de manger = before eating

So avant compléter would be incorrect.

Because after avant de, French uses the infinitive when the subject does not need to be stated again.

• avant de compléter mon dossier = before completing my file

It works a bit like English before completing or before she completes, depending on context.

In this sentence, the understood subject of compléter is the secretary, since she is the one doing the action of completing the file.

Because mon dossier means my file/case, not the secretary’s.

In French, possessive adjectives show who owns the thing, not who is the subject of the sentence.

So here:

• me = me
• mon dossier = my file

The idea is: the secretary asks me for a copy of the contract before completing my file.

If it were son dossier, that would usually mean his/her file, referring to someone else depending on context.

It can mean both a physical file/folder and a broader case/application record/document set, depending on context.

In administrative situations, dossier often means a person’s file or application paperwork.

So in this sentence, mon dossier probably means something like:

• my file
• my case
• my application record

not necessarily just a physical folder.

Sometimes, but not always.

• compléter often means to complete, to finish by adding missing information, or to make something complete
• remplir often means to fill in or to fill out

With dossier, both may be possible depending on the context, but they are not exactly identical.

• compléter un dossier suggests making the file complete
• remplir un dossier suggests filling out the forms in the file

In this sentence, compléter sounds natural if the secretary is adding what is needed to finish your file.

The structure is:

• La secrétaire = subject
• me = indirect object pronoun
• demande = verb
• une copie du contrat = direct object

So the pattern is:

Subject + object pronoun + verb + thing

This is very common in French:

• Il me donne un livre = He gives me a book
• Elle lui envoie un message = She sends him/her a message

Here, me is an indirect object.

The secretary is asking me for something, and the thing being asked for is une copie du contrat.

So:

• me = to/from me, depending on how you explain it
• une copie du contrat = the direct object, the thing requested

This matches the common pattern of demander quelque chose à quelqu’un.

No. In standard French, object pronouns like me, te, le, la, nous, vous, lui, leur go before the conjugated verb.

So you must say:

• La secrétaire me demande...

Not:

• La secrétaire demande moi...

The full non-pronoun version would be something like:

• La secrétaire demande à moi...

But even that sounds unnatural in modern standard French; French strongly prefers the pronoun form me here.