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Most people appreciate being asked their pronouns, it shows respect. If you want to avoid awkwardness it can help to introduce yourself with your pronouns, for example "I'm john and my pronouns are he/him". This not only prompts people to share thier own without question but also  helps trans people feel more comfortable in the conversation.

 It means a person’s gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. This applies to any identity that varies from their assigned gender.

 Gender identity is about what gender you are: for example, nonbinary, man, and woman are all gender identities! This means regardless if you're cis or trans, everyone has a gender identity!

Sexual orientation refers to who someone finds attractive, romantically or sexually, and is often based off of gender identity.

Unless someone tells you themselves there's no way to know for sure. It's also important to wonder and explore why you need to know. Unless It's relevant to the situation it's best not to assume and just be polite!

Some do and some don't, some may use hormones but not have surgery and vice versa. Some people may want to transition medically but can't for medical or social reasons. 

Generally, no. Questions about someone’s body, medical history, or if they have a different name to the one they are using are considered invasive. A simple way to look at it is- if you wouldn't ask it of a cis person, don't ask it of a trans person!

Cisgender refers to someone whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth. You don't have to use it but it's a useful term used in discussions surrounding differences in treatment so it is a term thats good to know.

As children grow and change thier bodies begin to change as well. It's very common for people to begin realizing they are transgender around puberty when secondary sex characteristics begin to appear and they begin to grow and develop as a person. To put it simply- rapid onset gender dysphoria usually happens because of rapid onset gender!

However some people may not realize until later in life- there are plenty of people who don't realize they are trans until thier mid 50's and even some who don't realize until thier 70's!

Being intersex means a person is born with physical sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, hormones, or reproductive anatomy, that don’t fit typical definitions of male or female. This can involve differences in external and internal genitals, internal organs, or hormone levels.

Intersex traits are natural and can appear at birth or become noticeable later in life.

Intersex is about biological variation and is different from gender identity or sexual orientation however  A poll sampled from primarily LGBTQ intersex youth in the US by The Trevor Project found that 55% identified as bisexual/pansexual, 28% gay/lesbian, 12% queer, 2% straight and 3% questioning.