Boy there are a lot of people who are smarter than I am here, but basically, a "Prime" is a lens with a fixed Focal Length. A 35mm or maybe a 50mm would be prime lenses. A zoom can cover a range of focal lengths, so an 18-105mm would cover the range of 18mm all the way up to 105mm.
Primes are generally faster (more sensitive to light) than zooms. A 50mm f/1.8 is much more sensitive than the 18-105 f/3.5-5.6. The " f " number is the Aperture of the lens The lower the number, larger the aperture opening. Again. try to narrow down what you want to photograph the most... that will help you in lens selection.
You have a long road ahead but don't let that discourage you. Check out this site
Digital Photography Tips and Tutorials It has a lot of good starter information.
As you learn the terms (Aperture, Shutter, ISO and others), take some sample pictures in Auto then look at the picture data on the computer or camera to see what the camera selected.