Le syndic convoque les copropriétaires.

Here, un syndic is the person or company that manages a co-owned building, especially an apartment building with shared ownership. In English, this is often translated as property manager, building manager, or managing agent.

It is a context-specific word. In other French-speaking regions, syndic can have other meanings, but with copropriétaires, the real-estate meaning is the one to understand here.

French usually needs an article before a noun in a normal sentence, so le syndic means the property manager.

Compare:

• Le syndic convoque les copropriétaires. = The property manager calls the co-owners together.
• Il est syndic. = He is a property manager.

After être with a job or role, French often drops the article. But in this sentence, syndic is the subject noun, so le is needed.

Convoque is the present tense of convoquer.

More precisely, it is the third person singular form of the present indicative, because the subject is le syndic.

So:

• je convoque = I call together / summon
• tu convoques = you call together
• il / elle convoque = he / she calls together

In this sentence, Le syndic convoque... means The property manager calls / is calling / convenes... depending on context.

Convoquer is the infinitive, meaning to call together, to summon, or to convene.

But in a full sentence with a subject, French usually needs a conjugated verb, so convoquer changes to convoque to match le syndic.

So:

• convoquer = to convene / to summon
• le syndic convoque = the property manager convenes / summons

Not exactly.

• inviter usually means to invite
• convoquer means to summon, to call together, or to formally call to a meeting

Convoquer sounds more formal and administrative. It is often used for meetings, official notices, or required attendance.

So in this context, Le syndic convoque les copropriétaires suggests that the manager is formally calling the co-owners to a meeting, not simply inviting them in a casual way.

Les copropriétaires means the co-owners — a specific, identifiable group.

That makes sense here: the building has a known set of co-owners, and the manager is calling that group together.

If you said des copropriétaires, it would mean some co-owners, which sounds less specific.

So:

• les copropriétaires = the co-owners
• des copropriétaires = some co-owners

Because les copropriétaires is the direct object of the verb convoque.

In French, convoquer quelqu’un takes a direct object, with no preposition.

So:

• Le syndic convoque les copropriétaires.
• not Le syndic convoque à les copropriétaires.

A useful test is the object pronoun:

• Le syndic les convoque. = The property manager summons them.

That les shows that les copropriétaires is a direct object.

There are two clues:

1. The article is les, which is plural.
2. The noun ends in -s, which usually marks the plural in writing.

The singular form is copropriétaire.

So:

• le copropriétaire = the co-owner
• les copropriétaires = the co-owners

Also notice that the pronunciation of the singular and plural noun is usually the same; the plural is mostly shown in writing through les and the final -s.

A careful pronunciation would be approximately:

Le syndic convoque les copropriétaires
/lə sɛ̃.dik kɔ̃.vɔk le kɔ.pʁɔ.pʁi.e.tɛʁ/

A few points:

• syndic has a nasal vowel in the first syllable: sɛ̃
• convoque ends with a pronounced k sound
• copropriétaires is a long word, but it breaks down fairly regularly

There is no liaison between les and copropriétaires, because copropriétaires begins with the sounded consonant c = k.

The word order is the standard French pattern:

subject + verb + object

So here:

• Le syndic = subject
• convoque = verb
• les copropriétaires = direct object

This is very similar to normal English word order:

The property manager summons the co-owners.

You replace it with les:

Le syndic les convoque.

In French, direct object pronouns usually come before the conjugated verb.

So:

• les copropriétaires → les
• Le syndic convoque les copropriétaires.
• Le syndic les convoque.

This is a very useful pattern to learn early.