to earth or to THE earth??

[raghuveer_v]

This is a question from "TestMagic Virtual TOEFL: Structure #27"

15.The term "ground" refers to an electrical conductor that completes an electrical circuit by connection to earth.

The answer is "connection"

is the correction "by connecting it"?

also, I feel that "earth" should be "the earth". What is the correct usage?

Thankyou





Raghuveer.

[arti]

I feel it should be "earth" and not "the earth".

and ya! the correction is "by connecting to"



Arti Gupta

[raghuveer_v]

Thankyou Arti,

But can anyone explain why it is "earth" and not "the earth"?



Raghuveer.

[Erin]

This is a question from "TestMagic Virtual TOEFL: Structure #27"

15.The term "ground" refers to an electrical conductor that completes an electrical circuit by connection to earth.

The answer is "connection"

is the correction "by connecting it"?

Yes, you are correct. We should be familiar with this pattern:

by + -ing form

when we want to explain how we do something.

also, I feel that "earth" should be "the earth". What is the correct usage?

Thankyou

Raghuveer.

This is a trick--remember, earth has another meaning, "dirt," which is also a non-count noun, so the would be wrong here.

BTW, when we are talking about the planet, we use an uppercase E--Earth. And, this is another TOEFL trick, the "the" is optional when we are talking about the planet Earth.

My students ask me about this all the time!! I even have a little chart on my wall to explain precisely this grammar point.

HTH!!

Erin

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TestMagic.com
San Francisco, CA USA

[raghuveer_v]

Thankyou Erin ,

I was thinking that since there is only one planet called the Earth , we should refer to it as "the earth".

But Erin, I am still in doubt.

for example, people say "Love is in the air."

What does the presence or absence of "the" signify in such scentences?

S.O.S.!!



Raghuveer.

[raghuveer_v]

Your advice is more than worth the wait.
So I'll ...


Raghuveer.

[Erin]

Thankyou Erin ,

I was thinking that since there is only one planet called the Earth , we should refer to it as "the earth".

But Erin, I am still in doubt.

for example, people say "Love is in the air."

What does the presence or absence of "the" signify in such scentences?

S.O.S.!!

Raghuveer.

Thanks for your patience, Raghuveer.

First of all, this is a fixed phrase, but I think you knew that already, right??

So, let's ignore that and assume we're talking about the sentence literally. So, we need to compare the difference between "Love is in the air."

and

"Love is in air."

The first sentence uses "the" and therefore refers to the air all around us, i.e., the atmosphere. So, we use "the" when we want to say, for example, "the air is really polluted in that city" or something like that.

I think you know where I'm heading, don't you??

Now, if I say that "Love is in air." then I mean that love is a component of air, i.e., love can be found in all air. Strange sentence, but that's what it means. A more normal sentence would be "Alcohol is in wine."

So, for the last example to tie it all up, imagine the following situation. We're at a party with a young child, and somebody tells us not to give punch to the child because "There's alcohol in the punch." So then we ask whether we could give our child a bottle of beer (pretend we don't know what beer is). Our friend would then respond, "No, don't give her beer--there's alcohol in beer."

Clear? Hope so!



Erin

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Please search this newsgroup for FAQs.

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San Francisco, CA USA

[raghuveer_v]

Yeah Erin, I got it! Thanks a lot .



Raghuveer.

[Igor]

Hello !

In this case " earth " is a special electrical term. In an electronic, the zero electric potential is named " earth". Therefore, if an electrical devise is connected electrically to something with the zero potential, it is named as connection to earth. Usually, a massive peace of metal has the zero potential.

Igor

[josuo]

Hi everybody,
Pls excuse for my ignorance, but could you guys explain these sentences to me:
[From Toefl test Oct.2001- Q 25th]

with little nor no mass and no electric charge, neutrinos can penetrate a solid object such as the Earth as if it were not there.

[From Toefl test May. 2001- Q 23th]

Gravitation keeps the Moon in orbit around Earth and the planets other of the solar system in orbit around the Sun.

I don't understand why there's no "the" before " earth" in the 2nd question. Could you guys pls tell me why there is "the" in the 1st Q and no "the" in the 2nd one ???

I badly need your help