From: "alexander koryagin" <koryagin@newmail.ru>

F2EP
Hi, Roy Witt! How are you?
on Friday, 29 of June, I read your message to alexander koryagin
about "Earth or the Earth"


[skipped]

 ak>> Yes, but when your dictionary enumerates the planet names it uses
 ak>> "the Earth". (begins with a capital letter). "the earth" is also all
 ak>> right, but it is IMHO a different term. For instance, "The earth was
 ak>> very close, and the pilot baled out."

 RW> If you look up 'earth' in the dictionary, it decribes differences in
 RW> the use of the word, some capped and some not capped.

 RW> If you're speaking of the Earth as a subject, it is a noun and a
 RW> capital E is supposed to be used. Meanwhile earth with a small case e
 RW> may be just plain old dirt in a sentence like: "the earth shook for
 RW> several minutes"


I looked at the article about "earth" in my dictionary (Longman), and it says:
=========Beginning of the citation==============
earth [transcription] 1 (the) uncountable (often cap.) the world on which we
live: They return successfully from the moon to (the) Earth.
=========The end of the citation================

Most likely, it all means that there is not any rule on this account, and using
 "the" before Earth is optional. Well, indeed, it is very probably. After all,
Englishmen don't use definite articles before names. And when we write "Earth"
we imply that it is a name of the planet. Technically, there is no any need to
use a definite article.

In general situation is funny. Englishmen think that Mars, Jupiter, etc are
planet names. That is why they don't use "the" before them. But when they speak
 of the sun, the moon, the e(E)arth it doesn't look that we have deal with
names. And many people use "the" despite the fact that each of the mentioned
objects are unique.

[...There is no two identical nose-prints among cats]
Bye Roy!
Alexander (yAlexKo[]yandex.ru) + 2:5020/2140.91
fido7.english-tutor 2012 


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