The French alphabet uses the same 26 letters as English, which is a great start. The main difference lies in the pronunciation. Many letters sound softer or are produced in a different part of the mouth. For instance, the French 'R' is often described as a gargling sound made in the back of the throat, very different from the English 'R'.

Vowels are particularly important. Unlike in English, they generally have one consistent sound. You'll also encounter accent marks, called diacritics, which change a letter's pronunciation or distinguish between words that are otherwise spelled the same.

Here are the main ones you'll see:

• The acute accent (l'accent aigu) on 'é' makes an "ay" sound.
• The grave accent (l'accent grave) on 'à', 'è', or 'ù' can change the vowel sound or the word's meaning.
• The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) on 'â', 'ê', 'î', 'ô', 'û' often indicates a letter (usually an 's') that was dropped from an older version of the word.
• The cedilla (la cédille) under 'ç' softens the 'c' to an 's' sound before a, o, or u. Without it, it would be a hard 'k' sound.

Knowing how to say hello is your first step into any conversation. French has different greetings depending on the time of day and the formality of the situation.

For a general, all-purpose greeting, bonjour is your best friend. You can use it for anyone, at any time until the evening.

When it gets dark, you switch to bonsoir. For a more casual 'hi' among friends, you can use salut. Interestingly, salut also works for 'bye'.

When leaving, the standard is au revoir. Now, let's try some simple introductions. To say your name, you use the phrase Je m'appelle...

One of the biggest shifts for English speakers is that every noun in French has a gender: it's either masculine or feminine. This isn't about the object itself being male or female; it's just a grammatical category you have to memorize.

This gender determines which article—the word for 'a/an' or 'the'—you use. For 'the', you use le for masculine nouns and la for feminine nouns.

For 'a' or 'an', you use un for masculine and une for feminine.

How do you know the gender? Often, you can't guess. The best way is to learn the article along with the noun. Think of the word for 'book' not as livre, but as un livre.

With some nouns and articles, you can start forming simple sentences. The most basic structure in French is the same as in English: Subject-Verb-Object.

Let's use the verb avoir, which means 'to have'. For 'I have', you say J'ai (pronounced 'zhay').

Let's add another essential verb: être, meaning 'to be'. For 'I am', you say Je suis.

To make a sentence negative, you wrap the verb with ne and pas.

You've now got the basic tools to introduce yourself, identify objects, and state simple facts. This foundation is everything.

Let's test what you've learned.

Great work. These first steps are the most important ones on your journey to speaking French.