Live supplies the electricity.
Neutral returns the electrical path to ground and is a *grounded* conductor. It completes the circuit.
The earth or “grounding conductor” is another *grounded* conductor that normally doesn’t carry any significant current (except perhaps a small bit of leakage). It’s there for safety so that if there is a ground fault that the circuit breaker can trip (or fuse blown). The metal chassis of an appliance will be tied to earth for safety reasons.
The earth and neutral are tied together at the panel and nowhere else.
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