The earth, the sun, etc

Question

HiI have seen both versions. Would you say that both are acceptable?The earth is round.The Earth is round.The Earth revolves around the Sun.The earth revolves around the sun.Thanks,Tom

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

You have found a can of worms. Sometimes it is a judgment call. I would not use a capital letter with "the". The earth is round, but Earth is an oblate spheroid (we capitalize the planets). But how on earth can we know when to capitalize in other cases?

I find a good rule at times like this is to go lowercase unless you have to go upper. By that rule of thumb, the sun never gets a capita

I find a good rule at times like this is to go lowercase unless you have to go upper. By that rule of thumb, the sun never gets a capital unless you call it Sol or something. Same goes for the moon, or Luna (the Latin names are rare). Unwarranted capitalizations call attention to themselves on the page, and that is never good style.

In the final analysis, consult the style guide for the type of writing you are doing.

The earth, the sun, etc

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