29 Jun 12 22:08, alexander koryagin wrote to Roy Witt:   
      
    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   
    RW>> e may be just plain old dirt in a sentence like: "the earth shook   
    RW>> for several minutes"   
      
    ak> I looked at the article about "earth" in my dictionary (Longman), and   
    ak> it says:   
    ak> =========Beginning of the citation==============   
    ak> earth [transcription] 1 (the) uncountable (often cap.) the world on   
    ak> which we live: They return successfully from the moon to (the) Earth.   
    ak> =========The end of the citation================   
      
   see (often cap), whichmeans that the word is often capitalized.   
      
    ak> Most likely, it all means that there is not any rule on this account,   
    ak> and using "the" before Earth is optional. Well, indeed, it is very   
    ak> probably. After all, Englishmen don't use definite articles before   
    ak> names. And when we write "Earth" we imply that it is a name of the   
    ak> planet. Technically, there is no any need to use a definite article.   
      
   I think the use of 'the' before the word earth would mean that the subject   
   is the Earth and not the earth we know is dirt...   
      
    ak> In general situation is funny. Englishmen think that Mars, Jupiter,   
    ak> etc are planet names. That is why they don't use "the" before them.   
      
   Using The before Mars and Jupiter would be like speaking of those   
   planets out of context. But if one were to use 'the' to speak of those   
   planets as in "The planet Mars", then it would seem to be in a better   
   context than not.   
      
    ak> But when they speak of the sun, the moon, the e(E)arth it doesn't   
    ak> look that we have deal with names. And many people use "the" despite   
    ak> the fact that each of the mentioned objects are unique.   
      
   Or we could use 'the' in such a context as I outlined above. The Solar   
   Sytem Sun or the Earth's satellite Moon...   
      
                   R\%/itt   
      
   ... besides, IMNSHO, Ward Dossche should resign as ZC2 and surrender his   
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   ... On Friday September 8th 2006, Mike Godwin's 16 year experiment was   
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   ... http://repealgodwin.tripod.com/   
      
      
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