Why do we say Earth and the Earth, but never the Mercury or the Jupiter?
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| Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash |
- Venus is much nearer to the Sun than the Earth.
- He referred to Copernicus’ statement that the Earth moves around the sun.
- People still believe that the Earth is flat.
- Climate change threatens the Earth.
- The Earth revolves around the Sun.
- The temperature of the Earth's core may be as high as 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
- No place on Earth can be shown to be safe.
- It would be theoretically possible to lay a cable from a satellite to Earth.
- The astronauts returned to Earth.
- It's like nothing on earth.
- The space shuttle returned to Earth safely.
- Thousands of tons of earth were moved to build the dam.
- You are living in an amazing time on Planet Earth.
When the Earth is spoken of as a physical body, occupying space-time, it's normally preceded by the article, and often capitalised. As are Sun and Moon, but there's no universality about either convention, nor is capitalisation necessarily governed by whether the article is present or not.
When Earth is used more "metaphorically" to mean our whole environment (really, just the thin skin of biosphere on the surface of the planetary body, where nearly all things that concern us take place) it's more normal to omit the article and you don't capitalise it.
Can you tell the difference between these two?
- I like sun.
- The sun is in my eyes.
In the first sentence, we omitted the article, because 'sun' means 'sunshine'.
Also, if you use the word 'earth' as a proper noun, you capitalise it, whereas if you are referring to it as a mass noun, you don't.
Phrases with 'earth':
- How on earth should I know?
- She's sophisticated, but also practical and down-to-earth.
- This is a flexible, well-designed machine which produces quality prints and doesn't cost the earth to print them.
- He hadn't been there that morning and now she had run him to earth in the café. (to find someone, especially by looking in many places
- promise somebody the moon/the earth - to promise to give someone something that is impossible for you to give
- the salt of the earth - someone who is ordinary but good and honest
