The French alphabet looks just like the English one, which is a great start. The main difference lies in how the letters sound. Many letters have a softer sound, and vowels, in particular, are pronounced differently. You'll also notice little marks on some letters, like é, è, â, and ç. These are accents, and they're not just for decoration. They change how a letter is pronounced or can distinguish between two words that are otherwise spelled the same.

Getting a feel for these sounds is your first step toward sounding like a local. Here are a few key letter combinations and their typical sounds to watch out for.

Another hallmark of French pronunciation is its nasal sounds. When a vowel is followed by an 'n' or 'm' at the end of a syllable, the sound resonates through the nose. Think of the sounds in words like bon (good) and vin (wine). You don't fully pronounce the 'n' or 'm'; instead, it changes the vowel before it. Listening to native speakers is the best way to get the hang of it.

Knowing how to greet people is your key to starting any conversation. In France, greetings are important and expected. The most common and versatile greeting is bonjour.

You can use bonjour all day long, from morning until early evening. When the sun starts to set, you switch to bonsoir.

With friends and people your age, you can use the more casual salut. It's a handy word that means both 'hi' and 'bye'.

Politeness is also highly valued. A few essential phrases will take you a long way.

Here are a few more phrases you'll hear and use all the time:

Let's cover some building blocks for everyday life: numbers, days, and months. You'll need these for everything from buying a croissant to making plans with friends.

First, let's count to twenty. Notice the patterns, but also the exceptions.

After twenty, a pattern emerges. For 21, you say vingt-et-un (twenty-and-one). For 22, it's vingt-deux, and so on. This pattern continues for 30 (trente), 40 (quarante), 50 (cinquante), and 60 (soixante).

Things get a little strange after 60. To say 70, you say soixante-dix (sixty-ten). 71 is soixante-et-onze (sixty-and-eleven). 80 is quatre-vingts (four-twenties). 90 is quatre-vingt-dix (four-twenty-ten). It takes some getting used to, but it's a fun quirk of the language.

The days of the week and months of the year are more straightforward. In French, they are not capitalized unless they start a sentence.

Now let's check your understanding of these basics.