There is a lot of terminology in bridge, some of which may be unfamiliar to new players. This section serves to defines some bridge vocabulary, as well as give an overview of the game.
The bidding phase of bridge is called the auction. During the auction, players make a series of calls. The dealer makes the first call, and the calls proceed clockwise around the table. When it is a player's turn to call, he may either bid or pass. Each player gets at least one opportunity to call; if all four players pass, then the hand passes out and is not played; a new hand is dealt. Often times the word "bid" is used as a synonym for "call"; if you are napping, your opponents may say "wake up, it is your bid!" when they really mean to tell you that it is your call.
Assuming the hand does not pass out, then the first person to bid in the auction is called the opener for that partnership. His partner is the responder. If one of the opponents of the opener makes a bid (other than double), that bid is called an overcall. When an auction contains any overcall, the auction is called a competitive auction.
During the auction, if a bid is followed by two passes, then the person whose turn it is to bid is in balancing position. For example, if you are the fourth person to call in the auction (that is, the dealer is to your left), and the bidding before you goes "1H P P", then you are in balancing position. In balancing position you can often overcall with fewer high card points than you would would need to make a direct overcall.
After someone has bid, the auction continues until there are three consecutive passes. The partnership that makes the highest bid in the auction has won the contract. One player of that partnership becomes declarer, and he plays the hand. The other player of that partnership is dummy, and he lays his hand out on the table after the opening lead and does not play. This hand on the table is often referred to as the board. The other partnership is the defense. The defenders will try to set the declarer; the declarer tries to make his contract. To make a contract, declarer must win six more tricks than the number his side has bid (if his partnership bid 4H, he needs 10 tricks). If the defense prevents him from taking this many tricks, then they have successfully set him.
Hearts and Spades are major suits. Clubs and Diamonds are minor suits. A game contract is at least 3 of no trump, 4 of a major, or 5 of a minor. A 6-level contract is a small slam, a 7-level contract is a grand slam. There are scoring bonuses for making slams. A contract that is below game is called a partial or a part-score. Part-scores accumulate until games are made. A rubber is bridge match: best-of-three games.
A flat hand is a hand whose distribution is 4-3-3-3, 4-4-3-2, or 5-3-3-2. All other hands are distributional hands. Distributional hands play better in trump contracts; flat hands are better for no trump. Another word for "distribution" is shape; a hand with 6-5-1-1 distribution has extreme shape.
If you have no cards in a suit, you have a void. A one-card suit is a singleton. A two-card suit is a doubleton. Any such shortness (doubleton, singleton, or void) may be referred to as a ruffing value. Note that a flat hand is a hand with at most one doubleton, and no singletons or voids.
Texture refers to the quality of the high cards in a suit. If you have all the honors in a suit (that is, AKQJ10) then your suit has fantastic texture. Indeed, any suit headed by AKQ has good texture. A suit headed by AQJ has poorer texture; AQ10 is poorer still. Touching honors make for better texture than split honors; KQ9 is much better that KJ9, as the latter suit might be all losers if the AQ10 was in the hand after it. A long suit with good texture can often create many extra tricks, both in trump contracts and in notrump contracts.
Transportation refers to the ability to change the lead between the two hands in the partnership. This is also called communication between the hands. It is important to have transportation between the hands to execute many good plays, especially finesses. A finesse is a play where you win a trick with a card despite the fact that the opponents have a higher card. Learning how and when to finesse is an important skill for declarer.