You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox* here.
*Try opening!
(>|)
You just started up a game and now you’re staring at text and a blinking cursor and you don’t know what to do!
Don’t panic kids—
Crazy Uncle Zarf is here to help you get started...
You can try all sorts of commands on the things you see.
Try the commands that make sense!
Doors are for opening; buttons are for pushing; pie is for eating. (Mmm, pie.)
◇◇◇◇
If you meet a person, these should work:
TALK TO name
ASK name ABOUT something
TELL name ABOUT something
GIVE something TO name
SHOW something TO name
Each game has slightly different commands, but they all look pretty much like these.
These commands are very common:

EXAMINE it TAKE it DROP it OPEN it PUT it IN something PUT it ON something | PUSH it PULL it TURN it FEEL it

When in doubt, examine more.
You could also try:

EAT it DRINK it FILL it SMELL it LISTEN TO it BREAK it BURN it LOOK UNDER it | CLIMB it WAVE it WEAR it TAKE it OFF TURN it ON DIG IN it ENTER it SEARCH it
UNLOCK it WITH something

Or even:

LISTEN SLEEP WAKE UP UNDO† | JUMP PRAY CURSE SING

†Take back one move — handy!

{ | Does the game intro suggest ABOUT, INFO, HELP? Try them first! | }

|  | N | (“Go north.”)
NW |  | ┃ |  | NE
| ╲ | ┃ | ╱ |
W | ━ | ╋ | ━ | E | Also: Up, Down, IN, and OUT
| ╱ | ┃ | ╲ |
SW |  | S |  | SE

“What if I only want to
type one or two letters?”
◇◇◇◇
N/E/S/W/NE/SE/NW/SW: GO
in the indicated compass direction.
L: LOOK
around to see what is nearby.
X: EXAMINE
a thing in more detail.
I: take INVENTORY
of what you posess.
Z: WAIT
a turn without doing anything.
G: do the same thing AGAIN
◇◇◇◇
A service of the People’s Republic of
Interactive Fiction: http://pr-if.org/