SQL is Structured Query Language and is used to retrieve information from a Database. There are different forms for different database's such as Access, MS SQL and Oracle PL/SQL but they should all fall under the umbrella of ANSI SQL which is a stantard version which all will subscribe to in a basic form. Basically it works as follows. There are 3 main parts the query, where clause and order clause (there are more but on a basic level this will so) You will have data stored in tables to get that information you would issue a command like
Select * from employees
this would show all the data in the employee table. you could be more specific and use
Select name from employees
and this would show just the names. The where clause can be used to get smaller sets of data so lets say you just wanted people called smith
Select * from employee where surname = 'Smith'
This lists the people called smith. The final part which is order by will order the data so you can say
Select * from employee order by surname
this will show the results in suranme order. You say you are familiar with access. In that case go to the query tab and create a query and run it. Then select the view menu and select SQL View this will show you the SQL created for that query.