S =south; N =north; E =east; W =west
The details are as follows:
1. "N" is English The first letter of the word "North" in, the Chinese translation of the word is: north or north;
2. "S" is the first letter of the word "South" in English, the Chinese translation of the word is: south or south;
3. "E" is the first letter of the word "East" in English, and the Chinese translation of the word is: east or east;
4. "W" is the first letter of the word "West" in English, and the Chinese translation of the word is: West or West.
In translation, if you want to translate southeast, northwest, you can directly translate it into east and west, north and south. In addition: northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest
Note: English, like Chinese, has special words for east, west, south, and north, but if it is not these four directions, the expression is It's different. In Chinese, when expressing other directions, it always starts with "east, west", while in English, when expressing other directions, it always starts with "north, south".
For example: Chinese: Northeast (note: It is 'east' in the front and 'north' in the back) English: northeast (note: it is 'north' in the front and 'east' in the back)
Extended information
The earth is A big magnet. The two poles of the earth are close to the geographical South Pole and the geographical North Pole. When the magnets on the earth's surface can rotate freely, they will indicate north and south due to the nature of magnets with the same sex repelling each other and opposite sexes attracting each other. The ancients did not understand this principle well, but the ancients had already discovered this phenomenon. Using this principle, the ancient Chinese invented Sinan, the prototype of the compass.
In order to accurately determine the relative direction of the compass, people later added the four directions E, S, W, and N (ie, southeast, northwest) to it.
As one of the four great inventions in ancient China, the compass played an immeasurable role in the development of human science, technology and civilization. In ancient China, the compass was first used to determine directions in sacrifices, etiquette, military affairs, divination and Feng Shui.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Compass