1st time ever playing the French Defense.

This is my 1st time ever playing the french defense. If anyone sees any mistakes I made, please tell me!

Keep in mind, I am still studying the theory of the french.

Keep in mind I didn't look at the engine: I) I don't think you should have taken that Knight on your 4th move, you only want to do that *if* you can double White's pawns, II) In the French, the c-pawn is usually advanced (unless if you're playing the Fort Knox Variation, in which the Bishop goes to c6) as to undermine White's central pawns.

Noted. I thought I could mke something out of it, so that's why I took the knight.

Plus from what I've been reading, it is almost always forced the black takes the knight on c6.

Make*

Neverness is right. You didn't achieve anything by taking the knight on the 4th move as that didn't double White's pawns, and you gave up the bishop pair (your strong bishop in fact) for no reason. Unless White plays a3, you should maintain the pin on the Knight as it could be very useful later.

Also usually black plays c5 to put pressure on the centre before Nc6 in the french.

I thought it was too early to decide to keep the pair or not. And seeing the board position at the time, I thought taking his knight would giving an advantage.

On @Checker99's defence: White played the weak (yet confusing) Qf3, very rare move – but it guards the c3 square of having its structure damaged. Take what @billypilgrim11 has said as a rule-of-thumb: "Unless White plays a3, you should maintain the pin on the Knight [...]"

move 5 was bad

I thought that was a wacky move also. I thought there was a better way to defend c3.

@Checker99 you don''t need theory, once you play people who don't drop pieces, you get 500 points stronger then those and then you think about opening. Openings is a marketing ploy for noobs. It works so well because there is an nearly endless amount of opening theory they can sell you. And furthermore they always have the excuse that its subjective orthat a gm has played it. Train tactics.