There's something you may want to try. Write down a few examples of things you want to take a photo of (for example: a close-up of a flower, a tree, the portrait of a friend, a building, a moving car, etc).
Then put your camera on full auto, go out and take those pictures. If the camera has a specific mode for a given situation, use it instead of full auto (for example: portrait mode for a portrait).
Then, when you get home, download the photos to your computer, open each one with the software that came with the camera, and take note of the settings it used for each situation. At first, keep your attention on ISO, aperture (the f-number) and shutter speed.
ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor. You use low ISO (100, 200) when your subject is well lighted. Say, an afternoon at a garden. Medium and high ISO values (400, 800, ...) are used for low light situations. This would be something like indoors with curtains, or otherwise when light from the sun is dim. The problem with increasing ISO is that, with entry-level cameras, noise increases.
Aperture (the f-number) serves to select how much of the background you want to have in focus. This is called depth of field. When taking a portrait, you would probably want only the face to stand out in focus, so you would use a low f-number, such as f/5.6. When shooting a landscape, however, you want to see all up to a long distance and thus use a large f-number such as f/16 or up.
Shutter speed is how much time the shutter remains open. The main use is to "freeze action" with a high shutter speed, or to give a sense of motion, with a slow shutter speed. Say, if you use 1/500 on a photo of a running person, the legs will be perfectly defined; if you use 1/60, the legs will leave a sort of trace, giving a sense of movement.
There's one thing to take into account. ISO, aperture and shutter speed all contribute to how much light will hit the sensor, that is to say how "bright" the exposure will be. You have to balance each of these three settings to get the effect you want.
The best way to learn is to go out there and take photographs. The more photographs you take, the more you learn by early mistakes.
Welcome and good luck!
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