The key points concerning nouns – gender, number and noun phrases – are set out at the beginning of the chapter. In the first section, the four different types of nouns are analysed – concrete and abstract, count and mass, collective nouns, simple and compound nouns –, all of which are important for an understanding of how nouns function in French. Examples of these different types and of abbreviations, acronyms and shortened words, are then illustrated. The second section, on gender, divides nouns into animate and inanimate words. It is explained that gender is often not predictable: it does not always correspond to sex in human beings or animals, and it is entirely arbitrary in inanimate nouns. Some useful ways of determining gender, by the ends of words and according to meaning, do exist and these are described at length. A new section in this edition highlights feminine job titles, a matter of importance in French-speaking countries today. This section ends with an account of the gender of compound nouns. The final section, on number, focuses on the plural forms of different noun endings, and covers various other aspects, such as the plurals of abbreviations, acronyms and symbols, nouns with no singular form and compound nouns. The chapter ends with a poem containing a wide range of types of nouns, which are subsequently analysed in a table, and five exercises for grammar practice.