Le contrôleur vérifie le billet électronique.

Le is the masculine singular form of the.

It appears twice because there are two separate nouns:

• le contrôleur = the inspector / the ticket inspector
• le billet électronique = the electronic ticket / the e-ticket

In French, articles are used more regularly than in English, so each noun normally needs its own article.

Vérifie is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb vérifier.

So it matches le contrôleur:

• je vérifie = I check
• tu vérifies = you check
• il / elle vérifie = he / she checks

In this sentence, le contrôleur vérifie means the inspector checks.

It can mean checks or is checking, depending on context.

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

• The inspector checks the e-ticket
• The inspector is checking the e-ticket

Both can be expressed by Le contrôleur vérifie le billet électronique.

If French wants to stress the ongoing action, it can use a longer structure such as est en train de vérifier, but that is not necessary here.

Because most French adjectives come after the noun.

So:

• un billet électronique = an electronic ticket
• literally: a ticket electronic

This is very normal in French. English usually puts adjectives before the noun, but French often puts them after.

It actually does agree with the noun, but in this case the masculine singular and feminine singular forms look the same:

• masculine singular: électronique
• feminine singular: électronique
• masculine plural: électroniques
• feminine plural: électroniques

So with billet (a masculine singular noun), électronique is already in the correct form.

Here, contrôleur usually means a person who checks tickets, especially on public transport. In natural English, that is often:

• ticket inspector
• ticket checker
• sometimes just inspector

Although contrôleur may look like English controller, the meaning here is not usually the same as the common English meaning of controller.

Billet is a common French word for a ticket, especially for travel or entry.

Examples:

• un billet de train = a train ticket
• un billet d’avion = a plane ticket

French also uses ticket, but often in different contexts, depending on region and situation, such as:

• a receipt
• a small coupon
• sometimes certain types of transport ticket

In this sentence, billet électronique is a very natural way to say electronic ticket or e-ticket.

A rough pronunciation is:

luh kohn-troh-lur vay-reef luh bee-yeh ay-lehk-troh-neek

A more accurate IPA version is:

lə kɔ̃.tʁo.lœʁ ve.ʁif lə bi.jɛ e.lɛk.tʁɔ.nik

A few helpful points:

• contrôleur has a French r, not an English r
• billet sounds like bee-yeh
• the final -s is not present here, so nothing extra is pronounced
• électronique ends with a clear -neek sound

The accents help with pronunciation and sometimes spelling history.

• ô in contrôleur: the circumflex often reflects older spelling and can affect vowel quality
• é in vérifie and électronique: usually gives a clear ay-like sound
• è in électronique: gives a more open vowel sound than é

So the accents are important: they are part of the correct spelling and often guide pronunciation.

If the inspector is female:

• La contrôleuse vérifie le billet électronique.

If there is more than one inspector:

• Les contrôleurs vérifient le billet électronique.

Notice the changes:

• le → la for a feminine singular noun
• le → les for a plural noun
• vérifie → vérifient for 3rd person plural

Mostly yes. The basic structure is:

• subject: Le contrôleur
• verb: vérifie
• object: le billet électronique

So it follows the same basic subject + verb + object order as English.

The main difference for an English speaker is inside the object phrase:

• English: the electronic ticket
• French: le billet électronique

So the sentence structure is familiar, but the adjective placement is different.