While French has the same alphabet as English, some of the letters have little decorations that can make them look and sound very different. In French, accents are essential: they're there for a reason, so you must include them when writing.
If you want to read and write in French, one of the first things you should learn is the alphabet. If you're wondering how many letters there are, you're in luck: French has the same 26 letters as English. Unfortunately, most of the names of letters are pronounced differently, as are many of the sounds.
More than half of French consonants are very similar to their English countparts, but a few are completely different. Here's a quick overview to help you get started learning French.
Contractions occur when two words are combined into one, sometimes with a distinctly different spelling. In English, contractions like "won't" are optional and indicate informality. In French, however, contractions are required, regardless of the register you're speaking or writing in.
An elision is a type of contraction that occurs when two words are combined: one or more letters are dropped and replaced with an apostrophe. In French, written elisions are required, regardless of the register you're speaking or writing in.
Nasal vowels are pronounced by passing air through the nose and mouth. French has four nasal vowels, each of which can be spelled at least two different ways.
Liaisons between syntactically related words, such as an article and its noun, or a subject pronoun and its verb, are required, though of course there are always exceptions.
French verbs that end in -cer or -ger require a small spelling change in certain conjugations. For the most part, these verbs are conjugated just like regular -er verbs, other than a little problem in some conjugations that must be corrected for reasons of pronunciation. It's easy enough to do, once you understand why and how.