La fruita és a la cuina.

És is the 3rd person singular present of ser.

So:

• jo sóc = I am
• tu ets = you are
• ell/ella és = he/she is

In this sentence, és matches la fruita, which is treated as singular.

In Catalan, ser is very commonly used for simple location:

• On és la fruita? = Where is the fruit?
• És a la cuina. = It is in the kitchen.

You may also hear estar in some varieties or situations:

• La fruita està a la cuina.

That can sound a bit more like the fruit is there / is staying there / is located there, depending on the speaker and dialect. But és a la cuina is a very normal, standard way to express location.

Because both fruita and cuina are feminine singular nouns:

• la fruita
• la cuina

Catalan uses definite articles very regularly, often more than English does. So having la before both nouns is completely normal.

Fruita is often used like English fruit: a mass/collective noun.

So la fruita can refer to fruit in general or to a quantity of fruit as one category, not necessarily just one piece.

You would use fruites if you mean:

• different kinds of fruits
• individual fruits, depending on context

For example:

• M'agrada la fruita. = I like fruit.
• Les fruites tropicals = Tropical fruits

Here a is the preposition used for location. In English, you would often translate it as in or at.

So:

• a la cuina = in the kitchen

This is very common in Catalan. The preposition a covers several meanings that English splits between to, at, and in, depending on context.

Because Catalan contracts a + el into al, but a + la stays a la.

So:

• a + el menjador → al menjador
• a + la cuina → a la cuina

The same idea applies with de:

• de + el → del
• de + la → de la

The accent in és does two useful things:

1. It helps distinguish it from es, which is a pronoun.
2. It shows the stressed vowel quality in writing.

So:

• és = is
• es = himself/herself/itself, or part of a pronominal verb

Example:

• La fruita és a la cuina.
• Ella es renta les mans. = She washes her hands.

A rough pronunciation for Central Catalan is:

luh FROOY-tuh ez uh luh KWEE-nuh

A few useful notes:

• fruita has a diphthong, roughly froy / frooy
• cuina sounds roughly like KWEE-nuh
• unstressed a and e often sound like a soft uh in Eastern/Central Catalan

Pronunciation varies by dialect, so you may also hear clearer a sounds in other varieties.