Hello everyone, I’m a Nigerian who have loved the French language since I was a kid. I got really interested in the French lifestyle and language through my French tutor back then in my elementary school. My parents decided to get me a private teacher to teach me how to read and write the French language. I remember I almost gave up because it wasn’t easy learning a foreign language but I can tell you it was lots of fun.

Many countries around the world have French as its official language, 29 countries to be specific including :, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, France, Gabon, Ivory Coast Guinea, Haiti, , Equatorial Guinea Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Monaco, Niger, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, Belgium and Vanuatu., of about 77 million native languages, it should also be noted that French ranks in the top 10 of the most commonly spoken languages worldwide, this is obviously due to France's extensive colonial influence in the 19th and early 20th centuries, many countries speak French as an official language or at least have a portion of their population who speak French.

FRANCE

According to statistics, France has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. France is the largest French speaking country with a population of over 59 million with France as its capital. France consists of the metropolitan of metropolitan France in Western Europe with several overseas regions and territories. These overseas territories are French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.
France is in terms international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, and human development is ranked at the top. France has always been known as a global center for art, science, and philosophy. Among the Europe countries, France hosts the third-largest number of cultural World Heritage Sites and in addition they also receive around 83 million foreign tourists annually, the most of any country in the world..
France had great influence in the European efforts to colonize Africa and obviously left its mark in terms language. French is also widely spoken, although not practically recognized as its main language is used in these African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Mauritius, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Madagascar, Algeria , Mali, Morocco, Niger, Reunion, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo and Tunisia.

FRENCH LANGUAGE

French (le français or la langue française) is a Romance language (evolved from vulga latin ) spoken by about 354 million people. French is the fourth most widely spoken language. In the list of European countries who speak other languages; statistical data has it that approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language

French is not so easy to learn but with commitment you can achieve it,
First we need to know the difference between French language and English language. French and English languages are not really apart. They are related because like I said above the French language is a romance language which descended from Latin with the Germans and English influence while the English language descended from the Germanic language with Latin and French influences. They therefore have some similarities which includes

1. The same alphabets.: the French alphabet contains the same 26 letters as the English alphabet and the letters
   A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
   With diacritics: é , è ,à ,ù , ç, â ê î ô û (circumflex), ë ï ü.
2. Cognates: there are many differences, both major and minor, between English and French language. False cognates are those words that look the same but have varying meanings, there are a number of cognates(words pronounced the almost the same way). For instance in English advertisement means to show case and the French avertissement, which means "warning" or "caution", asister in French means "to attend" something, while "assist" in English means "to help."
3. Phonology: phonology refers to a system of contrast relationships in speech sounds that constitute the fundamental components of a language. Having known that, common problems including the inability to correctly articulate the vowel sounds in minimal pairs such as chip / cheap, live / leave, of / off. This is due to the fact the tongue is not used in speaking French, learners often have problems with words containing the letters th(/θ/ /ð/), such as then, think and clothes.
4. Vocabulary: we observe closely that many of the words in the French and English languages happens to have the same Latin roots which are also mutually comprehensible,
   

Those are few of the many similarities/ difference between French language and the English language. To learn any language we need to start from the basic knowledge which in this case would be the ;single letters of the French alphabets.

Like I said, the French language is made up of 26 alphabets which are illustrated below;

French Alphabet	English Sound	Pronunciation Example
A	/ɑ/	a as in arrange
B	/be/	b as in baby
C	/se/	s as in sand
Ç	/se/	s as in song
D	/de/	d as in Daft
E	/ø/	e as in egg
F	/ɛf/	f as in French
G	/ʒe/	g as in get in
H	/aʃ/	H is Silent
I	/i/	i as in Italy
J	/ʒi/	j as in pleasure
K	/ka/	k as in kite
L	/ɛl/	l as in lump
M	/ɛm/	m as in mat
N	/ɛn/	n as in Nigeria
O	/o/	o as in orange
P	/pe/	p as in pluck
Q	/ky/	q as in queue
R	/ɛʁ/	r as in rant
S	/ɛs/	s as in sand
T	/te/	t as in time
U	/y/	u as in umbrella
V	/ve/	v as in vanish
W	/dubləve/ "double v"	w as in win
X	/iks/	x as in sax
Y	/iɡʁɛk/ "i grec"	y as in year
Z	/zɛd/	z as in zebra
â	a	as in apple
ê	e	as in elephant
î	i	as in Ireland
ô	o	as in online
û	u	as in ultimate

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Next , we talk about greetings, every now and then people exchange pleasantries so it is easier to learn what we hear and do all the time

Les salutations – Greetings
Bonjour! – Hello!
Salut! – Hi!
Quoi de neuf? – What’s up ?
Coucou! – Hey there!
Allô? – Hello?
Au revoir! – Goodbye!
À tout à l’heure ! – See you soon, See you in a while!.
Je suis désolé(e), mais je dois y aller – I’m sorry, but I have to go
À plus tard! (À plus!) – (See you) later!
Salut! – Bye-bye!

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Having know that, lets talk about the days of the week and months of the year

English	French Sound	Pronunciation
Monday	lundi	lœ̃di/
Tuesday	mardi	/maʀdi/
Wednesday	mercredi	/mɛʀkʀədi/
Thursday	jeudi	/ʒødi/
Friday	vendredi	/vɑ̃dʀədi/
Saturday	samedi	/samdi/
Sunday	dimanche	/dimɑ̃ʃ/
day	le jour	/lə ʒuʀ/
week	la semaine	la s(ə)mɛn/
today	aujourd'hui	/oʒuʀdɥi/
yesterday	hier	/jɛʀ/
tomorrow	demain	/dəmɛ̃/
next	prochain /	prochaine /pʀɔʃɛ̃/ /pʀɔʃɛn/
last	dernier / dernière	/dɛʀnje/ /dɛʀnjɛʀ/
day before yesterday	avant-hier	/avɑ̃tjɛʀ/
day after tomorrow	après-demain	/apʀɛdmɛ̃/
the following day	le lendemain	/lə lɑ̃dəmɛ̃/
the day before	la veille	/la vɛj/

Months of the year

English	French Sound	Pronunciation
January	janvier	/ʒɑ̃vje/
February	février	/fevʀije/
March	mars	/maʀs/
April	avril	/avʀil/
May	mai	/mɛ/
June	juin	/ʒɥɛ̃/
July	juillet	/ʒɥijɛ/
August	août	/u(t)/
September	septembre	/sɛptɑ̃bʀ/
October	octobre	/ɔktɔbʀ/
November	novembre	/nɔvɑ̃bʀ/
December décembre	/desɑ̃bʀ/
month	le mois	/lə mwa/
year	l'an / l'année	/lɑ̃/ /lane/
decade	la décennie	/deseni/
century	le siècle	/lə sjɛkl/
millennium	le millénaire	/milenɛʀ/

Having established the alphabets, greetings days of the week, months of the year , these are some common French words you could easily learn

English	French	pronounciation
Yes/No	Oui/Non	wee/nong
Yes, please/No, thank you	Oui, s'il vous plaît/Non, merci	wee, sel vo play/nong, mair-see
Please	S'il vous plaît	seel voo play
Thank you	Merci (madame/monsieur)	mair-see (mah-dahm/mer-syer)
You're welcome	Il n'y a pas de quoi	eel nyah pah der kwah
Here is/are	Voici...	vwah-see
There is/are	Voilà...	vwah-la
Hello/Good morning/afternoon	Bonjour, (madame/monsieur)	bong-zhor, (mah-dahm/mer-syer)
Hello/Good evening	Bonsoir(madame/monsieur)	bong-swahr, (mah-dam/mer-syer)
Goodbye	Au revoir	oh rer-vwahr
Good night	Bonne nuit	bon nwe
How are you?	Comment allez-vous?	kommahng tahlay voo
Very well, thanks	Très bien, merci	tray byang mair-see
Excuse me	Excusez-moi	ex-kewzay mwah
Do you speak English?	Est-ce que vous parlez anglais?	esker vo pahrlay ahng-glay
Can you help me?	Est-ce que vous pouvez m'aider?	esker vo povay may-day
I don't know.	Je ne sais pas.	zher ner sa pa
Could you please write it down	Est-ce que vous pouvez l'écrire?	esker vo povay lay-kreer
Sorry	Désolé	day-zo-lay
Leave me alone!	Laissez-moi tranquille.	lay-say mwah trahng-kel
Where?	Où?	oo
When?	Quand?	kang
How?	Comment?	komahng
Why?	Pourquoi?	por-kwa
Who?	Qui?	kee
Which?	Lequel?/Laquelle?	ler-kel/lah-kel
Where is...?	Où est...?	oo ay
How much?	Combien?	kon-byan
How many?	Combien?	kon-byan
What's that?	Qu'est-ce que c'est?	kessker say
I'd like...	Je voudrais...	zher voodray
I want...	Je veux...	zher ver
I like it.	Ça me plaît.	sa m play
I don't like it.	Ça ne me plaît pas.	sah ner mer play pah
Peter is kind	Peter est Gentile	peter say jontill
OK/Agreed.	Ça va/d'accord.	sah vah/dah-korr
That's fine.	CC'est bien.	say byang
I love you	singular)	\Je t'aime	zhuh tem
John is unselfish	John est altruiste	John say aahtrus
I love you!(plural)	Je vous aime	zhuh voo zem

And then some agricultural food stuffs

English	French
Tomatoes	Des tomates
Plantain	Des bananes plantains
Groundnut	Des arachides
cocoyam	Du taro
Yam	Des ignames
Rice	Du riz
Maize	Du mais
Sweet potatoes	Des patates douces

Learning French is quite easy with commitment. I am very sure that these few tips can help build our foreign language skills