Helo_Toby

As a non-native English speaker I have a question to those who are familiar with such little details of the English language:
In ST: TOS and ST: TNG the ship was also referred to as "the Enterprise". That was also the case for "the Defiant" in ST: DS9.
However, starting with ST: VOY and further on with ST: ENT the "the" was left out when referring to "Voyager" and "Enterprise".
How is such a minor but recognizable detail to be explained. Does this have a certain meaning in the English language? Or is it just different ways of using the language?
Thanks! Toby from Germany

Chris

Hi Toby. Welcome to

As far as I know either way is correct. Using 'the' makes it clear that the ship is an object, while omitting 'the' implies a proper name, if that makes sense.

Kathy_Janeway

Are you saying that in later series the captains become more in touch with their ships?
Kirk always mentions how the ship is a "lady", so that would match the proper name theory...but he still refers to it as "the".

This is my opinion...flame me if I'm wrong. ^_~
I think the "The" gives the ship a sense of importance, because these ships were obviously pretty rare in those times. However, as time goes on, it's really no longer the ship that's amazing...it's the effects, characters, and plot lines. So the ships simply become Enterprise and Voyager.

Chris

Does Scotty always use 'the'? He definitely seems to think of the ship as an entity ... not sure if that's the best way to explain it.

People seem to name their cars and such, I know of some people who name their computers. Maybe dropping 'the' became more commonplace after the 60s?

Helo_Toby

Thanks for the replies so far.
However, "the" has been dropped only from the 90s on. It was used during TNG and DS9.

Chris

hmm ... I don't think that you should read too much into whether or not "the" is used. Guess it's just a matter of preference.