How do I begin learning openings?

I've heard the terms French, Queen and King's and Scilian - but I don't actually know what any of these are.  When I look at the database on this site there seem to be twenty openings all with slight variations on names for each of the above!  

Which is the best opening to get to grips with first?  (Or the best three to keep me going for a bit!)

How many moves are there in a normal opening?

Cheers!

learn basic opening principles first

i)control the center ii)develop pieces iii)castle king to safety.

standard openings are used as tools to achieve these goals in an efficient manner.

learn typical ideas of the openings, typical pawn structures, placement of the pieces, goals, basic strategic and tactical issues in the opening, go over a few selected master games..its a long process..

to begin with, learn the very basics first and start playing games. then go over games and improve one move at a time..ask for help from stronger players if you are unable to do so yourself.

french and queens gambit will be more easier to learn compared to kings indian or sicilians..so start with the first two.

for example, if you are learning french, you have to know that you are fighting for the control of d4, you have a long term strategic problem to solve (the bishop on c8), some early tactical issues if not played properly - like the possibility of greek gift type sacrifices if black misplays the opening..i think this is a good start. gain some experience in the opening before trying to learn advanced stuff.

First, try figuring out what you and your opponents are playing by looking up the openings from your own games in the Game Explorer. Just being able to ID and name all the major openings and variations is no mean feat. Basically there are 5 classes of openings: 1 -Double KP (1.e4, e5) 2- Single KP (1.e4, anything but e5 inc. French Defense, Sicilian Defense, Caro-Kann Defense and several others) 3 - Double QP 1.d4 d5 4- Single QP (1.d4, anything but d5 for Black inc the Dutch Defense, Indian Defenses, etc) 5 - Other Openings - The most important is the English Opening 1.c4 which is really a family of openings ie 1.c4 e5 = Reverse Sicilian, 1.c4 c5 = symmetrical variations and 1.c4 ? Various Other variations.  Other Openings inc Birds Opening (1.f4), Kings Indian Attack, and lots more!

Concentrate on Double KP Openings with  both the White and Black pieces for now. Check out the Italian Game, Petrovs Defense and the Four Kts Game - this is more than enough to keep you going for a bit. BTW there is no "normal opening" with "X" number of moves. 

I haven't even scratched the surface here...this is one topic in which several or more viewpoints may be helpful for you.

http://www.chess.com/openings/    http://www.chess.com/explorer/

http://www.dwheeler.com/chess-openings/

http://www.thechesswebsite.com/chess-openings/

http://chessopenings.org/

Ruy Lopez is a good starting one, its easy and really popular.