French uses the exact same alphabet as English. The only differences are in the difference in pronunciation of some letters and letters that have diacritical markings (accent marks, cedillas).
The pronunciation of c depends greatly on its environment: it is hard like k before most vowels and consonants ("le coq"---rooster, "le crabe"---crab) while it softens before i and e: "le centimètre" (centimeter) and "cinq" (five). A ç is used to soften c where it would otherwise be hard, as in the French word for French, "le français." Ch is pronounced much like sh in English: "la chaise" (chair).
G acts in French like much as it does in English, but does not have the initial "d" sound when it is soft, as in Georges (the French name George), and French j is almost always pronounced like the "s" in "measure." H is silent at the beginning of a word. N and M the vowels they come after, in words like "fin" (the end) and "on" (one--a pronoun); although you may not distinctly hear these letters, it is not the same as them being silent. R is pronounced from within the throat, with somewhat more finesse than in German.
When a word ends in a consonant, this final consonant is often silent, depending on whether or not it is followed by the "silent" vowel -e or the next word begins with a vowel. In the word "chez" (a preposition with many meanings), the z is silent. However, if the next word starts with a vowel, such as André ("chez André," meaning "at Andre's house) the z is pronounced. Similarly, the -s in vichyssoise is pronounced because the word ends in a silent -e.
Accent marks most greatly affect the sound of the letter e: at the end of a word, e is silent, but an accented e is pronounced "ay" is in "may," as in the familiar word fiancé. The letters è and ê are pronounced more laxly than é, more like "eh" than "ay." For more on the French alphabet and to hear audio files for sounds, see Resources below.
French nouns show both gender (masculine and feminine) and number (singular and plural). French noun gender is, more often than not, unpredictable, so the easiest way to learn a noun's gender is to learn its definite article (le or la, meaning "the") at the same time. For instance, "le lit" (masculine---"bed") and la chanson (feminine---"song").
The plural article for both genders is "les," and most nouns form their plural by adding -s: "les lits" and "les chansons." Some nouns take an -x ending in the plural, such as "les animaux" (from the singular "l'animal"); another common example is "les cheveux," meaning hair, which is almost always referred to in the plural in French (singular--"cheveu").
French adjectives operate somewhat differently than in other Romance languages: the feminine form is generally formed by adding an -e to the masculine form: "bleu" (blue) becomes "bleue." Other variations occur, such as -x becoming -se ("furieux" and "furieuse"---angry) and -c becoming -che: "le let blanc" (white bed) vs. "la chaise blanche" (the white chair).
Adjectives that end in a silent -e in the masculine singular do not change their form in the feminine: "le lit rouge" (red bed) and "la chaise rouge" (red chair). Sometimes there are large internal changes between masculine and feminine adjectives, such as "beau" and "belle," the masculine and feminine forms of attractive (nice, fine).
Most adjectives form their plural by adding an -s to the appropriately gendered form: "les lits bleus" and "les chaises bleues." Masculine adjectives ending in -x do not change in the masculine plural ("l'homme furieux" and "les hommes furieux"). The plurals of beau are beaux and belles.
Like Many European languages, French has a more complex system of pronouns than English because of forms of address, ways that you show respect by using different pronouns. The subject pronouns of French are:
je, tu, il/elle/on, nous, vous, ils/elles
"Je" is straightforward: it means "I," as in "je m'appelle Marie" ("my name is Marie," or literally, "I call myself Marie"). The plural of this is "nous"---"we."
"Tu" is the singular informal second-person pronoun ("you"). You should only use this when talking with close friends, your pets or God (and other things, like inanimate objects).
This is where things get tricky. When you want to address one person---a colleague, your teacher, a stranger or an older person---respectfully, you call him or her "vous," which is really a plural pronoun, but is used in the singular to show respect. You also use "vous" to address more than one person in the second person, whether informally or formally.
"Il" means "he" and "elle" means she. These pronouns are also used to talk about objects (like English uses the word "it"). For instance: "Où est la bibliothèque ?" ("Where is the library?") Instead of saying: "La bibliothèque est là-bas" ("The library is over there"), most people would say: "Elle est là-bas" ("It's over there"---literally, "she's over there").
That leaves one more pronoun, "on." One good way to remember "on" is that it looks like the English pronoun "one" (it is not related to the number one), and is used, as in English, to indicate an indefinite subject. However, the subject "on" refers to is made clear in context. If you're talking about a group of friends and you ask "Est-ce qu'on viendra chez nous ce soir ?", this means: "Are they [the friends we're talking about] coming to our house tonight?" Substitutions with "on" are very common in French, and you will learn to use it properly through time and experience.
Verbs is French have many of the same features of the verbs of other Romance languages: they have a full set of tenses, conjugated for person and number in indicative, subjunctive and imperative moods. Most French verbs fall into -er, -ir and -re paradigms.
Let's look at the regular -er verb "chanter" (to sing) to see what a French verb looks like in the present tense: je chante, tu chantes, il/elle/on chante, nous chantons, vous chantez, ils/elles chantent (I sing, you sing, he/she/one sings, we sing, you [plural] sing, they sing). Note that the final syllable of the ils/elles form is always silent so "il chante" and "ils chantent" are pronounced the same.
For more information about French verbs, see Resources below.