Après la classe, je télécharge le fichier et je l’écoute dans le bus.

In French, school-related time expressions usually keep the definite article:

• après la classe = after (the) class / after class
• avant le cours = before class
• pendant la récréation = during recess

Leaving out the article (après classe) sounds incomplete or very marked/poetic.
So in everyday French, you almost always say après la classe or après les cours, not après classe.

Both relate to school, but they’re not used in exactly the same way:

• la classe

  • can mean “class” as a group of students
  • or the time spent in the classroom in a general sense
  • après la classe ≈ “after school / after class time”

• le cours

  • is more like “lesson / class session / course” (the teaching itself)
  • après le cours de français = after the French class

In everyday speech, après la classe is a natural way to say “after class (is over)” or “after school,” especially for younger students.

French often uses the present tense for:

• habitual actions

  • Après la classe, je télécharge le fichier…
    = After class, I (always / usually) download the file…

• a sequence of actions that happen regularly

If you wanted to insist on a one-time future action, you could say:

• Après la classe, je téléchargerai le fichier…
  = After class, I will download the file (on that specific occasion).

But as written, the sentence sounds like a routine: it’s what you normally do after class.

Both are grammatically correct:

• je télécharge le fichier et je l’écoute

  • very clear, natural, and common
  • repeats the subject je, like in English: “I download the file and I listen to it.”

• je télécharge le fichier et l’écoute

  • the subject je is understood for the second verb
  • more compact, slightly more written/formal style

In everyday spoken French, repeating je is very common and sounds completely natural. Not repeating it is fine but a bit more “careful” or written.

l’ is a direct object pronoun. Here, it stands for le fichier:

• je télécharge le fichier
• je l’écoute = je écoute le fichier → with pronoun: “I listen to it.”

Because fichier is masculine singular (le fichier), its direct object pronoun is le, which becomes l’ in front of a vowel sound:

• je le regarde (it = masculine noun, next word starts with consonant)
• je l’écoute (it = masculine noun, next word écoute starts with a vowel → elision to l’)

French word order for object pronouns is different from English:

• English: subject + verb + object
  
  • I listen to it.
• French: subject + object pronoun + verb
  
  • Je l’écoute. (literally: I it-listen)

So in French declarative sentences, direct object pronouns (me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les) go before the conjugated verb:

• Je le vois. = I see him/it.
• Nous les mangeons. = We eat them.
• Je l’écoute. = I listen to it / him / her.

This is elision, a very common rule in French:

• le → l’ before a word that begins with a vowel sound (a, e, i, o, u, or silent h).

So:

• le + écoute → l’écoute
• je le vois (next word starts with consonant: v)
• je l’aime (from je le aime)
• je l’entends (from je le entends)

Writing le écoute is considered incorrect in normal French. You must use l’écoute.

Yes, you can, but there’s a nuance:

• je l’écoute

  • uses a pronoun (l’) that clearly refers back to le fichier
  • sounds a bit more natural and compact in standard French

• j’écoute ça

  • literally “I listen to that”
  • sounds a bit more informal, looser reference
  • ça is more like “that thing / that file / that stuff”

Both are understandable; je l’écoute is more precise and more idiomatic when you have a clear direct object like le fichier right before.

Because fichier is a masculine noun in French:

• un fichier → le fichier (masculine)
• un document → le document (masculine)
• une image → l’image (feminine)

Gender is mostly arbitrary and must be memorized. You can’t guess it from the English word. That’s why the pronoun is le/l’ (masculine) and not la.

They mean slightly different things:

• dans le bus

  • literally “in the bus”
  • emphasizes being physically inside a specific bus
  • matches the English sentence “in the bus”

• en bus

  • means “by bus / by bus transport”
  • focuses on the means of transport, not the physical location
  • J’écoute le fichier en bus. = I listen to the file while traveling by bus.

So in your sentence:

• je l’écoute dans le bus = I listen to it while I’m inside the bus.
  If you wanted to talk more about how you travel, you might use en bus.

Yes, you can move these time/place expressions around:

• Après la classe, je télécharge le fichier et je l’écoute dans le bus.
• Après la classe, dans le bus, je télécharge le fichier et je l’écoute.
• Je télécharge le fichier après la classe et je l’écoute dans le bus.

All are acceptable. The meaning is basically the same; you’re just shifting the emphasis slightly:

• putting Après la classe first highlights the time.
• adding dans le bus after the verb highlights where you listen.

French is fairly flexible with adverbs of time and place, as long as the sentence stays clear.

Approximate guide using English-like sounds:

• télécharge: [tay-lay-sharj]

  • té → “tay”
  • lé → “lay”
  • char → “shar” (like sharp without the p)
  • final -ge → soft “zh” sound, similar to the s in “measure”

• l’écoute: [lay-koot]

  • l’ merges with the next word
  • é in écoute is like “ay”
  • cou → “koo”
  • te: the final -e is silent, so it sounds like koot, not koo-tuh

And bus is pronounced roughly [byss], with a French u sound (lips rounded, tongue forward), not like English “bus”.

Both are possible, but they’re not the same emphasis:

• je l’écoute dans le bus

  • simple present: “I listen to it on the bus”
  • implies a habit/routine

• je suis en train de l’écouter dans le bus

  • literally “I am in the process of listening to it on the bus”
  • emphasizes right now, what you’re currently doing

In your sentence, the present tense is being used in a habitual sense: describing what you generally do after class. That’s why je l’écoute is appropriate.