Q:

The French accents (marks above vowels)

I have read a lot about the accents (these little marks that appear above vowels ) in French. But I can't differentiate between them at all.
So I have two questions, can I ignore them while I am learning French ( at least in the beginning) ?
Can anyone explain it SIMPLY ?

A:

You can't ignore them since they change the pronunciation (most of the time) and the meaning. They are like real letters.

Some words just have letters with an accent so you have to learn and write them like that:

du = some; dû = due (pronunciation doesn't change)
a = has; à = to/in/at/etc. depending on the context (pronunciation doesn't change)
mais = but; maïs = corn (pronunciation changes)

The past participle for the first group verbs always ends with a -é:

manger = to eat
je mange = I eat/I'm eating
j'ai mangé = I have eaten

The pronunciation between mange and mangé is not the same.

