Files

A file is a block of information. The information stored inside a computer is organized in files.
Files are identified by a "name.format" sructure. With the "format" we are able to identify which kind of file is this (text, video, sound, image...) and with the name we are able to identify a concrete file.
For example a possible homework file could be: englishhomework.txt where "englishhomework" is the name that identify the file and "txt" is a text format that allow us identify this file as a text.

A folder is an special kind of file that contain information about the location of other files. This is a transparent operation therefore we can say that a folder is a container for other files. Folders are used for clasify files. For example we can create a folder called "My writings" and put all my personal "something.txt" files inside.

If you want to lean the most common operations with files you can see this web page.

For more information about how to work with files in ubuntu see the ubuntu documentation webpage.