[Erin]

You should be familiar with the Banana Rule before reading this information.

One of the most important rules on the TOEFL is this:

A singular count noun cannot stand alone.

What I say quite frequently in my explanations is this:

If you see a Singular Count Noun with no determiner, it is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

Both of these sentences mean essentially the same thing.

There are, however, many "idiomatic" usages that do not follow this rule, and TOEFL will expect you to know them. I've been collecting these usages for a while now. Here's what I have:

• according to legend
• arm in arm, hand in hand
• at home, at work, at school, at church, at camp
• at lunch, out to lunch, for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, after breakfast, after lunch, after dinner, etc.
• at night
• at sea
• at sea level
• at sea, to sea
• attend school, college, university
• by car, by bus, by train, by airplane, by boat, etc.
• by day, by night
• by means of, by use of
• day after day, week after week, month after month, etc.
• from top to bottom
• go to sleep, go to bed
• in class, out of class, after class, before class, to class, etc.
• in court, in prison, in bed
• in hand, on bended knee, on hand, at hand
• in office, of office
• in orbit
• in school, at school, to school, from school, after school, etc.
• inch by inch, mile by mile
• job titles: poet, manager, head, author, sculptor, secretary, owner, founder, president, photographer, choreographer, painter, etc.
• kind of guy, sort of thing, type of car
• measurements: in area, in height, in distance, in length, etc.
• on foot
• on land
• part of, as in x is part of y. For example, oxygen is part of water, memory is part of learning, etc.
• per: We do NOT use a determiner after per. For example, we say miles per hour, times per day, etc.
• subject to arrest, to fine, to deportation, etc.
• tools: with hammer and saw, with knife and fork, with knife in hand