El te és més barat que el cafè a l'estació.

Catalan often uses the definite article with nouns when speaking about things in a general sense.

So:

• el te = tea
• el cafè = coffee

Even when English would usually leave the article out, Catalan often keeps it. This is very normal with food, drinks, languages, body parts, and abstract ideas.

So El te és més barat que el cafè sounds natural in Catalan, even though English would normally say Tea is cheaper than coffee.

This is the standard comparative pattern in Catalan:

• més = more
• barat = cheap
• que = than

So literally it is:

• més barat que = more cheap than

Natural English turns that into cheaper than.

This same pattern works with many adjectives:

• més gran que = bigger than
• més petit que = smaller than
• més car que = more expensive than

Because barat agrees with te, and te is masculine singular.

In Catalan, adjectives usually agree in gender and number with the noun they describe:

• el te és barat = tea is cheap
• la llet és barata = milk is cheap
• els entrepans són barats = the sandwiches are cheap
• les begudes són barates = the drinks are cheap

Here, the thing being described as cheaper is el te, so the adjective is masculine singular: barat.

Catalan often distinguishes between ser and estar, and here ser is the normal choice.

• és is from ser
• està is from estar

With prices, general characteristics, and descriptions, Catalan usually uses ser:

• El te és barat = Tea is cheap
• El cafè és car = Coffee is expensive

Using estar here would not be the normal basic way to talk about price.

Que can mean different things depending on the structure.

In comparative sentences, que means than:

• més barat que el cafè = cheaper than coffee
• més alt que jo = taller than me
• menys interessant que això = less interesting than that

In other contexts, que often means that:

• Crec que vindrà = I think that he/she will come

So the meaning of que depends on the grammar around it.

Because estació begins with a vowel, and the article is elided.

The base article here is la, because estació is feminine:

• la estació becomes l'estació

After the preposition a, you get:

• a + l'estació = a l'estació

You do not say al estació.

Compare:

• al mercat = to/at the market (a + el = al)
• a l'estació = to/at the station

So before a vowel sound, Catalan normally uses l'.

Good question: l' can stand for either el or la, so by itself it does not show gender.

You learn the gender from the dictionary form or from other words around it. Estació is feminine:

• la estació → l'estació

You can see the feminine more clearly with other determiners:

• aquesta estació = this station
• la nova estació = the new station

So in this sentence, l' does not tell you the gender, but the noun estació is feminine.

The accent marks help show pronunciation and sometimes distinguish words.

• cafè has a grave accent on è, showing the stressed vowel quality.
• és has an accent to distinguish it from es.
  • és = is
  • es = a pronoun, as in reflexive forms

As for te, it is written without an accent in modern Catalan when it means tea.

So:

• te = tea
• té = has

That accent on té is important because it distinguishes the verb from the noun.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation is:

el TE es mes bə-RAT kə el kə-FÈ a les-ta-si-Ó

A few helpful notes:

• te sounds roughly like teh
• és sounds like ess
• més sounds like mess
• barat has stress on the last syllable: ba-RAT
• cafè has stress on the last syllable: ca-FÈ
• estació has stress on the last syllable: es-ta-ci-Ó

Pronunciation varies somewhat between dialects, but that stress pattern is the key thing to notice.

In normal understanding, a l'estació applies to the whole situation: at the station, tea is cheaper than coffee.

So the idea is:

• At the station, tea is cheaper than coffee.

It is not usually understood as attaching only to coffee.

If you want to make that even clearer, Catalan could also put the location first:

• A l'estació, el te és més barat que el cafè.

That version makes the setting very explicit from the start.

Yes. Without the location, you get a more general statement:

• El te és més barat que el cafè.

Adding a l'estació narrows it to a specific place. Catalan often places this kind of location phrase at the end, but it can also come at the beginning:

• A l'estació, el te és més barat que el cafè.

Both are natural. The difference is mostly one of emphasis and information flow.