How to write addresses in English

Sometimes you can forget that some parts of the text in different languages have their own formatting rules. This includes direct and indirect speech, dialogues and business correspondence. In the latter, it is very important to follow all the rules, because this is what can make a good impression on the interlocutor and help get a multi-million contract. 

Business letters in English are a separate genre, you need to practice writing them, stock up on a fair amount of special vocabulary, take into account all grammatical and stylistic requirements. Every comma is literally important here, so you can’t lose face. 

So, the very first thing in a business letter in English is the address. The rules for writing an address may vary depending on the addressee of your letter, so we will analyze several cases at once and see the differences. 

General rules for writing an address 

There is one most important rule for writing an address. You can even call it a scheme, or a sequence. So, in the English-speaking sphere, it is customary to indicate the address in the upper right corner of the letter, no matter whether it is a letter or an e-mail. 

Address procedure	Example
Name and surname of the addressee  Company name (if required)  City address (house number, street, apartment number)  City  Index/Postal Code  Country	Mr Ch Robertson 3R & Co. 72 West Street, off 11 Liverpool NR32 4WY  United Kingdom

It should be noted that words such as street or the name of a company department should be capitalized. The house number is written before the street name without extra commas; after the street name, the office or apartment number should already be specified. 

This scheme can be applied to any type of correspondence, both business and informal, friendly. 

 

Features of British addresses 

Separately, we should talk about English addresses, because there may come across their own nuances that surprise an unknowing person. 

So, always write a polite address before the address. It is always assigned the first line. 

Polite address: (Mr, Mrs, Ms) + First letter of first name (without dot) + last name 

Further standard city address. 

City. It must be written in capital letters, according to the rules of the country. 

The index is what you should pay attention to. The numeric postal code is not used in all countries. In Europe, numbers are often used interspersed with letters. 

The index in the United Kingdom defines a part of the country, a district, and even a building. Therefore, it is very important to specify the exact index when sending a letter. 

The country is indicated on the last line. Remember that the United Kingdom consists of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

 

American address 

The address in the states is written almost the same as in Foggy Albion. Perhaps the main difference is the presence of the state in the address bar. 

So, a US address would look something like this: 

Mrs V Smith 

Company Name (if needed) 

23 Lane Road, F4 

Brooklyn, NY 11202 

It is also worth paying attention to the fact that the floor and apartment number in America can often be expressed by a letter, hence the code - F4, where F is the floor, and 4 is the apartment number on this floor. 

 

Address not for business correspondence 

In fact, business correspondence is far from the only direction where you need and can write an address. Things can be much more prosaic if it occurred to you to send a postcard or a handwritten letter to a friend from another country, as before. Or maybe you have your own online store and the order must be delivered to the other end of the mainland. 

Each country may have its own address filling standards, but there is also a universally accepted rule. The main thing is to indicate all the necessary data, such as the name of the recipient, city address, city and postal code. In this case, you can use a universal template, using which it is impossible to make a mistake. Just exclude the company line from there, and you get a scheme for filling in the postal address for letters and parcels. 

 

Required vocabulary 

In the United States, for example, there are many varieties of streets that are abbreviated when writing an address: 

• STR – street
• AVE – avenue 
• LN – lane 
• RD – road 
• TPKE – turnpike – toll road (in the USA) 
• PL – place 
• DR – drive – a long winding road, laid out taking into account the terrain. For example, drive can go around a mountain or a lake 
• BLVD – boulevard 
• WAY – a small narrow path away from the main road or highway 
• TER – terrace – the road leading up to the top of the slope

If the letter is business, then the office can also be shortened: 

• Ofc / off – office
• Ste / STE – suite - room / office 

In addition, you need to know the following words and abbreviations: 

• Name/First Name
• Surname / Last name
• City / Town
• Apt – Apartment
• Postal code/ ZIP code – Index 

In general, we can say that writing an address is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. Especially considering that our country now also uses the international format, indicating the street, city, and only then the country and index.