👉 Okay, let’s tackle this whole swirling vortex of letters and frankly rather pointy-headed geography that is, admittedly, quite a mouthful:
South East / South Eastern.
Now, you might instinctively think we're just describing the general vibe of somewhere with lots of palm trees and maybe a slightly stuffy old colonial past. (Spoiler alert, it absolutely can be. There are plenty of those things in that broad swathe of the northern hemisphere!) But honestly? It gets… fiddly. Basically, the difference boils down to the insistence of the English language being aggressively literal, then immediately regretting that insistence and adding an “èr.” Let's unpack it: South East (apéșit! We must proceed with caution here.) is essentially a general, somewhat lazy way to describe something existing in the broad lower right quadrant of... everything. South and east, together. It’s… okay. It works, sort of. Think of it as the equivalent of saying, "Around there somewhere that looks vaguely sandy and possibly has a very polite badger." South Eastern (now we're venturing into the territory of the truly pedantic!): This is the result of the English language’s deep-seated need for precise definition. The suffix –èr, you see, it just demands to exist . It implies that there are… nuances within that broad South East designation. There are south-eastern
