"He eats a potato."
Translation:Αυτός τρώει μία πατάτα.
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Because πατάτα is feminine gender, like pretty much all nouns that end in alpha (except those in mu alpha -μα, which are usually neuter).
ένα is neuter.
In older spelling, it could also be the form for the masculine accusative έναν before certain consonants, but the current spelling rules mandate that it always stays έναν.
Is there a similar rule that identifies masculine nouns?
Yes: most nouns ending in -ος are masculine as well as pretty much all nouns ending in -ας, -ης, (-ες, -ους).
Neuter nouns generally end in -ι, -ο, -μα.
Feminine nouns generally end in -α, -η, (-ου).
Endings in parentheses are less common.
Nouns ending in -ος can be any of the three genders, but are most often masculine.
It's usually the same thing. If you definitely need a difference between the two, "μία"=one and "μια"=a(n), but it's not that strict, as you can see from this sentence.
No, μια/μία means "one" (or sometimes "a, an").
You may be thinking of Spanish or Italian where "mia" means "my".