L'emballage de ce gâteau est joli, mais il n'est pas pratique.

Because emballage begins with a vowel sound, and French normally shortens le or la to l' before a vowel or silent h.

• le emballage would sound awkward in French
• so it becomes l'emballage

Since emballage is masculine, the full article is le, but before the vowel it changes to l'.

Here, de means something like of.

So l'emballage de ce gâteau means the packaging of this cake.

This is a very common French structure:

• le livre de Marie = Marie's book / the book of Marie
• la couleur de la voiture = the color of the car

French often uses de where English might use of or an apostrophe-s.

French demonstratives must match the gender and number of the noun.

For this / that:

• ce = masculine singular before most consonants
• cet = masculine singular before a vowel or silent h
• cette = feminine singular
• ces = plural

Since gâteau is masculine singular and starts with a consonant sound, French uses ce:

• ce gâteau

If it were a masculine noun starting with a vowel, you would use cet, for example:

• cet arbre

You usually have to learn the gender along with the noun. In dictionaries, gâteau is listed as a masculine noun.

That is why it takes:

• ce gâteau
• le gâteau

There is not always a reliable rule from the spelling alone, so it is best to memorize nouns with their article:

• un gâteau
• le gâteau

Because joli is describing l'emballage, and emballage is masculine singular.

French adjectives usually agree with the noun they describe:

• masculine singular: joli
• feminine singular: jolie
• masculine plural: jolis
• feminine plural: jolies

So:

• L'emballage est joli
• but La boîte est jolie

Il refers to l'emballage, not to ce gâteau.

So the idea is:

• The packaging is pretty, but it is not practical.

This is important because the nearest noun in English is not always the one French is referring to. Here the main topic is l'emballage, so il replaces that noun.

Since emballage is masculine singular, the pronoun is il.

French often uses a subject pronoun in the second clause instead of repeating the full noun, just as English uses it.

So:

• L'emballage de ce gâteau est joli, mais il n'est pas pratique.

is more natural than repeating:

• L'emballage de ce gâteau est joli, mais l'emballage de ce gâteau n'est pas pratique.

The pronoun keeps the sentence smoother.

Standard French negation is usually built with ne ... pas around the verb.

With être:

• il est = it is
• il n'est pas = it is not

The ne becomes n' before a vowel sound, which is why you see:

• n'est pas

In informal spoken French, people often drop ne and say il est pas, but in normal written French you should use ne ... pas.

That apostrophe shows elision.

Ne becomes n' before a vowel sound, and est begins with a vowel sound. So:

• ne est pas → n'est pas

French does this often:

• je aime → j'aime
• le emballage → l'emballage
• ne est pas → n'est pas

It actually already agrees with emballage, but pratique is one of those adjectives whose masculine singular and feminine singular forms look the same.

So you get:

• masculine singular: pratique
• feminine singular: pratique
• masculine plural: pratiques
• feminine plural: pratiques

That means the form does not visibly change in the singular, even though agreement is still there.

Compare:

• un emballage pratique
• une solution pratique

Both use pratique.

Because there are two separate statements joined by mais:

1. L'emballage de ce gâteau est joli
2. il n'est pas pratique

French, like English, needs a verb in each clause. So you cannot leave out the second est.

The sentence is basically:

• The packaging of this cake is pretty,
• but it is not practical.

Mais means but and connects two contrasting ideas:

• it looks nice
• it is not practical

So mais introduces a contrast between appearance and usefulness.

Not always. Ce / cet / cette / ces can mean this, that, these, or those, depending on context.

So ce gâteau could mean:

• this cake
• or that cake

If the meaning has already been shown to the learner, then the context tells you which one is intended. French does not always make the same distance distinction that English does.