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The Earth. Why Not The Mars?

SPQR

Darwin's Dachshund
SPQR
Joined
Mar 25, 2006
Messages
453
I've always wondered about this little oddity in the way we refer to the planets in our solar system.

Why is it acceptable to say, "the Earth" but not "the Mars" or "the Jupiter"? I've heard the Earth refered to as both "the Earth" and simply "Earth" but it is not the same with any of the other planets in our solar system.

Any thoughts on why not?
 
SPQR said:
Any thoughts on why not?
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Mumble . . . Mumble . . . What? . . . Did someone call?

Oh well now that I’m awake . . . I think it’s just sloppy use of the language. In either case we all know what we mean.
 
My guess would be that the name is older than the realisation that the earth beneath our feet is just one of many planets, just like the bright dots in the night sky. Of course, we also say the Sun and the Moon.

Another sometimes puzzling use of the definite article in English is the names of certain countries, such as the Gambia, the Bahamas etc. However, Gaza does not take the definite article...
 
I always wondered why 'the Enterprise' sounded right and normal but 'the Voyager' sounded weird.
 
Because Mars, Venus, Pluto etc are names of ancient Greek gods. Earth isn't.
 
SPQR said:
I've always wondered about this little oddity in the way we refer to the planets in our solar system.

Why is it acceptable to say, "the Earth" but not "the Mars" or "the Jupiter"? I've heard the Earth refered to as both "the Earth" and simply "Earth" but it is not the same with any of the other planets in our solar system.

Any thoughts on why not?
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We dont say "the Terra".
 
Correct use of the definite article is probably the most difficult thing for non native speakers or writers of English to master. Those who grow up with the language know when "the" is required and when not.

The rule is that there is no rule.
 
shemp said:
The difference is that we're standing on it. If we we're from another planet, we'd probably call it The Earth. Similarly, I should refer to Donald Trump as "The Donald" unless I'm standing on him.
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I urge you to test this hypothesis at once.
 
Soapy Sam said:
Correct use of the definite article is probably the most difficult thing for non native speakers or writers of English to master. Those who grow up with the language know when "the" is required and when not.

The rule is that there is no rule.
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There's a woman at work whose first language is not English. She's very fluent, but she can never manage using "it" and "what" in the same sentence.. She'll say "we'll find out what is", "we'll find out is what", "we'll find it is what", "we'll find it what is", and "we'll find it out is what" interchangeably. I had never realized what strange words "it" and "what" are until now.
 
Beady said:
It ain't so easy for native speakers, either. In the US, you're "in the hospital" but, five miles from where I'm writing this, in Canada, you're "in hospital."
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Perhaps it's because Canadians (and the British) think about being in the hospital as a process, rather than occupying a building. Just like someone is "in college" or "in high school", or even "in the auto loan business". Whereas Americans think of a hospital as a building you go to for a while, then leave. Just like someone is "in the mall" or "in the library". Interestingly enough, Americans do say "in church" when they're referring to attending church services, but they'll say "in the church" if you ask the whereabouts of someone not involved in services. Aunt Greta is "in church" on Sunday morning, while the plumber called to fix the baptismal font is "in the church".
 
I believe it has something to do with the fact that "Earth" is the only one of the planets that can be used as both a noun and a proper noun. Usually "the" is not used in conjunction with a proper noun. You would not say "I am going to speak with the Mark", nor would you say "I am going to fly on the Delta airlines", where singular nouns area almost always preceeded by an article of some sort, such as "I am going to speak with the person over there" or "I am going to fly on the airplane". Earth when used as the name of the planet is a proper noun, where when it is used to refer to the ground, it is only a noun.

There are exceptions to using "the" before proper nouns, such as "I am going to the Mall Of America", or when referring to a particular object where there are multiple objects with the same proper noun, such as "I am going to the McDonalds on 3rd St.". As someone else said, there is no steadfast rule about when to use "the". Personally, I would find it unusual if someone said "we are flying to the Earth in our space ship", and similarly unusual if someone said "we are walking on Earth"

Edit: Actually, come to think of it, Mercury can also be used as a noun, but somehow I don't think this is what we are talking about.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Perhaps it's because Canadians (and the British) think about being in the hospital as a process, rather than occupying a building. Just like someone is "in college" or "in high school", or even "in the auto loan business". Whereas Americans think of a hospital as a building you go to for a while, then leave. Just like someone is "in the mall" or "in the library". Interestingly enough, Americans do say "in church" when they're referring to attending church services, but they'll say "in the church" if you ask the whereabouts of someone not involved in services. Aunt Greta is "in church" on Sunday morning, while the plumber called to fix the baptismal font is "in the church".
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So why the difference between "The doctor will see you now." and "Doctor will see you now?"
 
By the way, it is the same way in Spanish, 'la Luna', 'el Sol', 'la Tierra', but 'Júpiter', 'Venus', etc.

There is some movement to have this changed. From Taylor & Wheeler's Spacetime Physics (which, by the way, is the best introduction to special relativity there is; you can read it with just high school maths & physics):

Note: Neither astronomers nor newspapers say 'the Venus' or 'the Mars'. All say simply 'Venus' or 'Mars'. Astronomers follow the same snappy practice for Earth, Moon, and Sun. More and more of the rest of the world now follows -- as do we in this block -- the recommendations of the International Astronomical Union.
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In Spain, not even astronomers say 'Luna' and 'Tierra', without the article, it just doesn't sound right.


Soapy Sam said:
Correct use of the definite article is probably the most difficult thing for non native speakers or writers of English to master. Those who grow up with the language know when "the" is required and when not.

The rule is that there is no rule.
Click to expand...

The most difficult thing for me is the use of prepositions (I mix them up if I'm not paying attention). The problem with 'the', for a Spanish speaker, is that it is used almost oppositely to its Spanish homologues 'el/la/los/las'. With this I mean that almost all the times when we don't use it in Spanish, you do in English, and vice versa.
 
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Beady said:
It ain't so easy for native speakers, either. In the US, you're "in the hospital" but, five miles from where I'm writing this, in Canada, you're "in hospital."
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As a Canadian I can't help but correct you. In Canada it's "you're on the list" to eventually..maybe...be in hospital for that nuisance kidney transplant. If you don't mortgage you're house and drive to the US first.
 
The article eliminates any possible confusion between the planet and the (mostly) brownish stuff on it. If you use Terra or Gaia, there is no need for the article, since there's little room for ambiguous interpretation.
 
Yllanes said:
By the way, it is the same way in Spanish, 'la Luna', 'el Sol', 'la Tierra', but 'Júpiter', 'Venus', etc.
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In Spanish, the use of the article before proper names is quite complicated. Some rules exist, but it has do mostly with tradition.

In the case of "la Tierra", "la Luna", and "el Sol", the purpose of the article is to make the noun more specific.
 
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