The Jupiter?

Question

0 If you are out in space, you can see the earth, the moon, and the sun.  Why can't we say, "we can see the Jupiter" or "the Mars", "the Venus", "the Neptune", etc...?0-

Davkett · Accepted Answer

0I'm guessing that it would only be proper to write, "I see Earth."  With a capital letter, it is the planet's name.  Without the capital letter, 'the earth' refers to the soil.  (Not that any Earthling is so proper when writing.)0-

Paco2004 · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Wwwdotcom12cite10If you are out in space, you can see the earth, the moon, and the sun. Why can't we say, "we can see the Jupiter" or "the Mars", "the Venus", "the Neptune", etc...?12br
12blockquote

10I've been thinking over this question since I read it. Historically speaking even in the time of Chaucer, they did not put THE before the names of celestial bodies like Mercury, Venus, Mars or Jupiter. I feel it might be a result of translation from Latin documents, although the French influence could be also reckoned as the cause. What is interesting is, however, that Shakespeare and some of his contemporary writers used phrases like "the Venus" or "the Mars". So the rule of no THE for planets other than "the Earth" seems to have somehow swayed in the past history of the English language. But in the current English they seldom say "the Venus". Even in the case "Venus" is modified by an adjective like "bright", they commonly say "bright Venus", not "the bright Venus".02br
02br
01font00Celestial bodies02font02br
01font00Names of other planets and stars are proper nouns and begin with a capital letter: "The planet Mars can be seen tonight in the constellation Gemini, near the star Pollux."02br
02font01font00The words sun, earth, and moon are proper nouns when the sentence uses them in an astronomical context, but not elsewhere: so "The Sun is a main sequence star, with a spectral class of G2"; but "It was a lovely day and the sun was warm". Note that these terms are only proper nouns when referring to a specific celestial body (our Sun, Earth and Moon): so "The Moon orbits the Earth"; but "Pluto's moon Charon".02br
02font00-From [url=05000]Wiki's Manual of Style[/url] 02br
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00paco 0240hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style

Khoff · Answer

0 You can't say "the Jupiter" or "the Mars," but you could eliminate the articles and use the proper names instead of the "generic" names for "the moon" and "the sun": "I see Luna, I see Sol."  I think the inconsistency comes from the fact that we tend to think of OUR moon and sun as THE (only) moon and sun, though of course we know there are others.  And, as someone already mentioned, I think one would usually capitalize Earth (when referring to our planet), whether ornot it is preceded by "the." 0-

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