I'll pay for the golf shoes.
How about "standing in line" versus "standing on line?"
SPQR
Darwin's Dachshund
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2006
- Messages
- 453
Maybe we should rename our moon. Its pretty presumptious of us to call our moon the moon when there are much more fascinating, IMO, moons out there in our solar system.
Astronomers should come with a cool Greek or Latin name for our moon like all the other planets' moons.
Astronomers should come with a cool Greek or Latin name for our moon like all the other planets' moons.
Because we call the ground beneath our feet 'earth'.
Like, say, 'Luna'?
Jimbo07
Illuminator
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- Jan 20, 2006
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- 4,518
Moreover, should I ever make it into one... why would I say 'in hospital' and not 'in the hospital?'
... in hospitable?...
l0rca
I know so much karate
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2005
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- 1,100
the [(stressed/emphatic), ee(unstressed)(before a vowel), ee(unstressed)(before a consonant), ə]
CORE-MEANING: an adjective, the definite article, used before somebody or something that has already been mentioned or identified, or something that is understood by both the speaker and hearer, as distinct from “a” or “an”
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Deriving, I think the answer is probably because this is our home; this is what we understand. The other planets are more mysterious. The same reason we say "my home," instead of stating the address. "The," a subject identifier for Earth, also gives the impression that we connect the word because we feel the Earth is more than a title for the planet we're on -- it's the label we give to our niche. I think this makes better sense if you consider some sci-fi movies, where they distinguish some planets as "New Earth".
If someone asked where you are, you would say, "I'm on Earth"/"I'm on Mars."
But when we talk about Earth, we talked about The Earth. Just like when we talk about Rock, we talk about The Rock. It's a subject identifier for the purpose of further distinguishing and compliment.
Also, like Tai Chi said, the subject identifier helps us distinguish between the ground beneath our feet. But many times, people still, even though it's obvious what we mean, refer to our planet as "The Earth".
*passes out from redundancy*
CORE-MEANING: an adjective, the definite article, used before somebody or something that has already been mentioned or identified, or something that is understood by both the speaker and hearer, as distinct from “a” or “an”
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Deriving, I think the answer is probably because this is our home; this is what we understand. The other planets are more mysterious. The same reason we say "my home," instead of stating the address. "The," a subject identifier for Earth, also gives the impression that we connect the word because we feel the Earth is more than a title for the planet we're on -- it's the label we give to our niche. I think this makes better sense if you consider some sci-fi movies, where they distinguish some planets as "New Earth".
If someone asked where you are, you would say, "I'm on Earth"/"I'm on Mars."
But when we talk about Earth, we talked about The Earth. Just like when we talk about Rock, we talk about The Rock. It's a subject identifier for the purpose of further distinguishing and compliment.
Also, like Tai Chi said, the subject identifier helps us distinguish between the ground beneath our feet. But many times, people still, even though it's obvious what we mean, refer to our planet as "The Earth".
*passes out from redundancy*
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Moreover, should I ever make it into one... why would I say 'in hospital' and not 'in the hospital?'
... in hospitable?...
In Britain you can quite happily say both.
Or sadly, depending on circumstances.
VespaGuy
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2004
- Messages
- 1,034
Yes, even within the US the rules change from region to region. I have met quite a few west-coasters who refer to highways using "the", as in "You need to take the 91 to the 75". (Can any one else verify that this is the norm on the west coast, or anywhere else?).
Here in New England (or at least my little corner), we simply skip the "the": "You need to take 195 to 95".
Could you give references supporting this statement? The usage authorities I've consulted disagree. Here are a couple of online refs:
http://www.rpi.edu/web/writingcenter/esl.html
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=289
... and quite a few manuals of style contain the phrases "the earth" or "the Earth" in examples of correct usage. I don't think they'd use an improper phrase to demonstrate proper usage.