"on earth" vs. "on the earth"

[Alan]

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Hi,

Broadly we don't use the definite article before abstract nouns when they are not used with special reference as: Death comes to us all - The country was shocked by the death of their leader.

We do use the article generally before a noun of which, as far as we know, there is only one: the moon, the earth, the sun and so on. Mars and Saturn may be unique but they are in fact names of planets and would not attract a definite article.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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[Hariom4me]

Thanks Alan .