East or eastern. Piece of advice from English native speakers!

Member since 17 December 2012

NadiaMMember18 April 2013 17:50:50

It's been a funny thing which I want to clarify with the native speakers!
I'm not English native speaker, I'm from Ukraine. I've been studying English from 10 years old, later at the University (foreign languages), still I can't say this process (of learning) is complete. My language knowledge is far from excellence! I live quiet a long time abroad, I speak English in Egypt, Turkey, Maldives and now here in Mauritius. I've met so many people from so many countries, and we all speak English, but we have to admit we speak Arabic English, Indian English, Russian English or French English, and it isn't a Proper English which goes out of mouth of real Englishman/woman. So here is my question. I wrote in one document "eastern coast/western coast/southern/northern coast (by that I meant location of the hotel around Mauritius), and my Mauritian colleague try to change my English said that it's not correct and proper and that I must write South coast, West coast. For God's sake, dear native English native speakers, assuage my doubts and advise how to say in a right way!

thedandan Member

Member since 11 August 2012

thedandanMember18 April 2013 18:59:08

Short answer:

I agree with your use of "northern coast", but I think it's acceptable to use either, and it's probably more common to use "north coast".

Long answer:

From my understanding, "eastern" is an adjective, whereas "east" will generally be part of a defined area.聽 So in Australia, you have "West Australia" (a state), and "western Australia" which is not defined but probably means the western third of the country.聽 "East Germany" used to define a country, but now I'd use the term "eastern Germany" to describe the eastern half of the country.聽 Eastern/western Europe define parts of Europe, but I'm fairly sure the boundary is fuzzy, I don't think I've heard "West Europe".

But for every rule there are many exceptions.聽 "Northern Ireland" is a country, "Northern Territory" is a state (kind of) in Australia.聽 In England the northern parts of the country are referred to as any of: "Northern England", "North of England" and "the North".

So, given that there is (as far as I know) no clear definition of the "north coast" of Mauritius, I think the correct term is the "northern coast".聽 But since native English speakers can't make up their minds, you are free to do whatever you like ;-)

NadiaM Member

Member since 17 December 2012

NadiaMMember19 April 2013 15:36:52

Thank you, thedandan. It helped a lot

sbhagia Active member

Member since 17 April 2014

sbhagiaActive member25 April 2014 20:40:39

hello
this post is old but very interesting as there are many people from different countries speaking in various ways...
west coast and western coast both seem right but west coast sounds appropriate....
hope to keep in touch,
regards
suresh