Cette piqûre ne fait presque plus mal, mais j’évite quand même les moustiques.

Because piqûre is a feminine singular noun.

French demonstratives agree with the noun:

• ce = masculine singular
• cet = masculine singular before a vowel sound
• cette = feminine singular
• ces = plural

So:

• ce moustique
• cet insecte
• cette piqûre
• ces moustiques

Since piqûre is feminine, cette is the correct form.

Piqûre can mean several related things, depending on context:

• an insect bite/sting
• a needle prick
• an injection

The core idea is a small puncture or sting/prick.

In this sentence, because of les moustiques, cette piqûre most naturally means this mosquito bite.

A useful contrast:

• piqûre de moustique = mosquito bite
• morsure de chien = dog bite

French usually treats mosquito bites as piqûres, not morsures.

Because faire mal is the normal French expression for to hurt / to cause pain.

So:

• Cette piqûre fait mal. = This bite hurts.
• Ma tête me fait mal. = My head hurts.
• Tu me fais mal. = You’re hurting me.

Literally, faire mal means to do/make pain, but you should treat it as a fixed idiomatic expression meaning to hurt.

French often uses expressions that don’t map word-for-word onto English.

This is a very common structure, and it helps to break it into parts:

• ne ... plus = no longer / not anymore
• presque = almost

So:

• ne ... plus mal = no longer hurts
• ne fait presque plus mal = almost doesn’t hurt anymore / hardly hurts anymore

A few comparisons:

• Cette piqûre fait mal. = This bite hurts.
• Cette piqûre ne fait plus mal. = This bite doesn’t hurt anymore.
• Cette piqûre ne fait presque plus mal. = This bite hardly hurts anymore.

Here presque softens the statement: there is maybe still a little pain, but very little.

Yes — but in French, plus has two important uses:

1. more
2. in ne ... plus, it means no longer / not anymore

So context matters.

Examples:

• Je veux plus de café. = I want more coffee.
• Je ne veux plus de café. = I don’t want coffee anymore.

In your sentence, plus is part of ne ... plus, so it means anymore / no longer, not more.

Because presque modifies the whole idea of no longer.

• ne ... plus = not anymore
• presque plus = almost not anymore / hardly anymore

So presque plus mal means the pain is nearly gone.

This order is normal in French:

• Il n’y a presque plus de pain. = There is hardly any bread left.
• Je ne sors presque plus. = I hardly go out anymore.

Think of presque plus as a very common chunk.

Because je becomes j’ before a vowel or silent h.

So:

• je parle
• j’évite
• j’habite
• j’aime

This is called elision. It makes pronunciation smoother.

So j’évite is just je évite reduced in the normal French way.

Yes, éviter means to avoid.

In this sentence:

• j’évite les moustiques = I avoid mosquitoes

It can be used in several ways:

• éviter quelqu’un = avoid someone
• éviter un problème = avoid a problem
• éviter de faire quelque chose = avoid doing something

Examples:

• J’évite Paul en ce moment. = I’m avoiding Paul at the moment.
• J’évite de sortir le soir. = I avoid going out in the evening.

Quand même is a very common expression meaning things like:

• all the same
• even so
• still
• anyway
• nevertheless

In this sentence:

• Cette piqûre ne fait presque plus mal, mais j’évite quand même les moustiques.

That means something like:

• This bite hardly hurts anymore, but I still avoid mosquitoes.
• ...but I avoid mosquitoes anyway.

It adds the idea: despite that, the speaker continues to avoid them.

It’s one of those expressions whose exact English translation changes with context.

Because it is modifying the whole statement j’évite les moustiques and is placed in a natural position inside the clause.

French adverb placement is not always the same as English word order.
Here, j’évite quand même les moustiques sounds very natural.

You could think of it as:

• I still avoid mosquitoes
• I avoid mosquitoes anyway

French often places short adverbial expressions like this near the verb.

Because les moustiques is being used in a general sense: mosquitoes as a class of things.

In French, when talking about something in general, you often use the definite article:

• J’aime les chats. = I like cats.
• Je déteste les araignées. = I hate spiders.
• J’évite les moustiques. = I avoid mosquitoes.

If you said des moustiques, it would sound more like some mosquitoes, referring to particular ones rather than mosquitoes in general.

So les moustiques is the natural choice here.

Yes, very often in spoken French.

So in everyday speech, many people would say:

• Cette piqûre fait presque plus mal, mais j’évite quand même les moustiques.

However, in careful written French, ne is normally kept:

• Cette piqûre ne fait presque plus mal...

Important note: when ne disappears in speech, the meaning is still understood from context, but for learners it’s best to first master the full standard form.

In ne ... plus, plus is usually pronounced without the final s sound:

• plus → roughly plu

So:

• ne fait presque plus mal
  is usually pronounced with plus sounding like plu

This helps distinguish it from positive plus meaning more, which often has the s sound:

• plus de temps = more time

That said, pronunciation can vary somewhat depending on region, speed, and speaker.

It is the normal conjunction but, linking two contrasting ideas:

1. Cette piqûre ne fait presque plus mal
2. mais j’évite quand même les moustiques

So the contrast is:

• the bite is almost not painful anymore,
• but the speaker still avoids mosquitoes.

The logic is very natural: Even though this bite is no longer much of a problem, I still don’t want more mosquito bites.

Yes. Even if the meaning is already known, it helps to see the range of natural English equivalents.

Possible translations:

• This bite hardly hurts anymore, but I still avoid mosquitoes.
• This bite almost doesn’t hurt anymore, but I still avoid mosquitoes.
• This mosquito bite no longer hurts much, but I still avoid mosquitoes.
• This bite barely hurts now, but I avoid mosquitoes anyway.

The French itself is straightforward, but English offers several natural ways to express the same idea.