Le conseil syndical lit l’ordre du jour avant la réunion.

Because French usually shortens le to l’ before a vowel sound. This is called elision.

So:

• le + ordre → l’ordre

French does this to make pronunciation smoother. The same thing happens in words like l’école, l’homme, and l’idée.

Du is the contraction of de + le.

So:

• de le jour → du jour

This kind of contraction is very common in French:

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

In l’ordre du jour, du jour is part of a fixed expression.

It is very much a set expression in French. Even though the words literally look like the order of the day, the phrase is commonly used for agenda.

So learners should treat l’ordre du jour as a chunk, not build it word by word every time.

Lit is the third-person singular present form of lire (to read).

Present tense of lire:

• je lis
• tu lis
• il/elle/on lit
• nous lisons
• vous lisez
• ils/elles lisent

The subject here is Le conseil syndical, which is grammatically singular, so the verb must also be singular:

• Le conseil syndical lit

Even if the group contains several people, the noun phrase itself is singular.

Because French, like English, often treats a group name as a singular noun.

Compare in English:

• The committee reads the agenda.

Even though a committee has multiple members, committee is singular. French works the same way here:

• Le conseil syndical lit

If you wanted to refer to the individual members instead, you would need a plural subject.

Because most French adjectives are placed after the noun, and syndical is the kind of adjective that normally follows it.

So:

• un conseil syndical
• not usually un syndical conseil

This is especially true for relational adjectives like syndical, which describe the type or function of something rather than giving a subjective quality like grand, petit, or beau.

French usually needs an article where English may sometimes leave one out.

So French says:

• avant la réunion

not:

• avant réunion

Here, la réunion refers to a specific meeting already understood in context. French strongly prefers the article in this kind of phrase.

La suggests a specific, identifiable meeting.
Une would mean a meeting, more indefinite or non-specific.

So:

• avant la réunion = before the meeting
• avant une réunion = before a meeting

In your sentence, the definite article makes sense because it sounds like a known meeting, not just any meeting.

The sentence follows a very standard French pattern:

• Subject + verb + object + time expression

Here that gives:

• Le conseil syndical = subject
• lit = verb
• l’ordre du jour = direct object
• avant la réunion = time phrase

This is one reason the sentence feels straightforward to English speakers: the order is fairly similar to English.

Lit is pronounced lee.

Important point: the final t is not pronounced here.

So:

• lit sounds like lee
• lis also sounds like lee
• lisent also sounds like leez? No — actually lisent sounds like leez only in spelling? Not quite. In pronunciation, ils lisent sounds like leez? Again, not exactly in isolation it is liz?
  A simpler learner-friendly point is this: several forms of lire look different in writing but may sound similar.

For this sentence, just remember:

• Le conseil syndical lit → lee

A simple approximate pronunciation for an English speaker is:

luh kon-say san-dee-kal lee lor-dr duh zhoor ah-vahn lah ray-u-nyon

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• Le is a light luh
• conseil sounds roughly like kon-say
• syndical has a nasal first syllable; an approximation is san-dee-kal
• lit = lee
• l’ordre begins with the l’ linked directly to ordre
• du jour has the French j sound, like the s in measure
• avant has a nasal ending
• réunion is said with four clear parts: ray-u-nyon

Yes. In your sentence, avant is followed by a noun phrase:

• avant la réunion

But if you want to say before doing something, French normally uses:

• avant de + infinitive

For example:

• avant de lire l’ordre du jour
• avant de commencer la réunion

So this sentence shows one common pattern, but not the only one.