La question est un peu difficile.

In French, nouns usually need an article in ordinary sentences. La is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

So:

• la question = the question

Unlike English, French often does not drop the article in this kind of statement.

You learn the gender as part of the noun: la question, not just question.

Because question is feminine, it uses:

• the article la
• feminine adjective forms when needed

In this sentence, difficile looks the same in masculine and feminine singular, so you do not see a spelling change. But the noun is still feminine.

Est is the he/she/it form of the verb être, which means to be.

The subject is la question, which is a singular noun, so French uses the singular form:

• la question est = the question is

This is just the normal present tense of être.

In French, descriptive adjectives often come after the noun, especially in sentences with être.

Here the structure is:

• La question = subject
• est = verb
• un peu difficile = description

So French says:

• The question is a little difficult

Not every adjective goes after the noun when used directly next to a noun, but in a sentence with être, the adjective comes after the verb:

• La question est difficile

Un peu means a little or somewhat. It softens the adjective difficile.

Compare:

• La question est difficile. = The question is difficult.
• La question est un peu difficile. = The question is a little difficult.

So un peu works like an adverb phrase modifying difficile.

Because un peu is a fixed expression. Here, un is not agreeing with question.

The phrase un peu de... originally means something like a little bit of..., and peu is a masculine noun in that expression. So the form stays:

• un peu

It does not change to match the gender of question.

Some French adjectives have the same written form in the masculine and feminine singular. Difficile is one of them.

So you get:

• un livre difficile = a difficult book
• une question difficile = a difficult question

Even though the noun changes gender, difficile stays spelled the same here.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

la kes-tyon eh tun puh dee-fee-seel

A few points:

• question sounds roughly like kes-tyon
• est is pronounced like eh
• un peu is pronounced smoothly together
• difficile ends with a clear -seel sound

In natural speech, French flows together, so est un may sound linked:

• est un → roughly eh-tun

Not exactly. It is similar, but more French in sound.

English question is roughly KWES-chən.
French question is closer to kes-tyon.

Important differences:

• the beginning is not the same as English kw
• the ending is more like -yon, not -chən

Yes. That would be completely correct.

• La question est difficile. = The question is difficult.
• La question est un peu difficile. = The question is a little difficult.

Adding un peu makes the statement softer or less strong.

Yes. It usually means a little, but the tone can vary:

• neutral: somewhat
• mild complaint: a bit
• polite softening: a little

So in this sentence, it could mean:

• a little difficult
• somewhat difficult
• a bit difficult

The exact nuance depends on context and tone of voice.

The pattern is:

subject + être + adverb phrase + adjective

Here that gives:

• La question = subject
• est = form of être
• un peu = adverb phrase
• difficile = adjective

This is a very common French pattern for describing something:

• Le film est intéressant.
• La soupe est un peu chaude.
• Le devoir est difficile.