A singular count noun must be preceded by one of the following:

• an article--a, an, or the
• a possessive adjective or possessive pronoun--my, your, his/her/its

A plural count noun is often, but not always, preceded by one of the following:

• an article

Noncount Nouns
Noncount nouns do not have a plural form.
Noncount nouns take a singular verb.
Noncount nouns have to be counted with quantifiers

There are several types of noncount nouns:

• whole groups made up of similar items--food, fruit, traffic
  
• fluids--water, gasoline
  
• solids--butter, gold, wood
  
• particles--rice, dust, sugar
  
• abstractions--beauty, wealth, truth
  
• languages
  
• fields of study--philosophy, science, literature
  
• recreation--baseball, soccer, basketball, ping-pong
  
• gerunds--swimming, traveling, walking, singing
  
• some natural phenomena--fog, lightning, sunlight, gravity

Some nouns can be count and noncount: when this happens, their meanings differ. For example:

"baseball" means "the ball" (count)
"baseball" also means "the game" (non-count)

"chicken" means "the animal" (count)
"chicken" also means "meat" (non-count)

"light" means "a fixture" (count)
"light" also means "stuff from the sun" (non-count)

Quantifiers

Count Only Quantifiers  

Singular	Plural
one	two, three, etc.
each	a lot of, lots, both
every	several, many, a number of

Non-count Only Quantifiers

a little, much, a great deal of
Quantifiers That Work With Count and Non-count Nouns

not any, no
some, a lot of
lots of, plenty
most, all