Guys, thanks for the replies, especially Roger's which is by far the most helpful to a beginner, ie confirmation of the 3/4 beat.
In my opinion, the most difficult and frustrating part as a beginner is establising a strum pattern and the beat. I end up playing the same song many different ways and a lot of time end up giving up on a song because I don't have a definitive way to play it. Again, in my opinion, as a beginner, the greatest help you experts can give us beginners is to confirm the strum pattern (or a strum pattern) and the beat. Once I have these, I can practice a song to death knowing I'm playing it in a consistent manner. In this way, I gain confidence by learning a few songs which should help me down the line to pick up the beat in new songs and create my own strum patterns for these - at the moment I cannot do either.
Thanks again Roger.