Not that long ,almost around what Rubis suggested,yet there are many aspects to learning a language (French here in particular).Pronunciation in French is not very easy specially for you as a native English speaker, there are some vowels that might take you lots of practice to be able to pronounce them correctly.This part might take you a bit longer to master. As for the basic vocabulary it won't take you long to get hold of it. As a whole it will vary from person to person according to their own ability,the time they dedicate for learning and how intensive their effort is .

It depends of what you mean by "beginner" ! My chinese friends were able to communicate very well in 3 month of study. But it was 8 hours/day lessons, with native speakers...

It will take longer if you try to learn French by yourself. I found the Knowledge pages on the right hand side of the italki site very useful. http://www.italki.com/learn-french/en-us

Bonjour, It is really different for each student depending your faculties and how much time you can spend on it. One thing for sure, you will never know if you don't try...

i don't knwo how much but if you are really interested you could in 2/3 months learn the alphabet and greeting expressions and other usual phrases. good luck. that's my own experiance in learning spanish. :)