Hi all, I am currently writing something from the perspective of an American, where I have pretty limited knowledge of how life is there. Could someone help me with postal addresses? Mainly how they are laid out and in what order I put things. I want to write down an address that is in Queens County in New York City
We would not put the county unless it were maybe a rural address and Queens NY is definitely not rural, though I have actually seen people from Queens break it down into the different neighborhoods. But just so you know, that's an idiosyncrasy of that area and not considered standard. It would go like this: This is standard: 4321 Sparkington Street, Apt 7, New York, NY 12345 But this might also be seen: 4321 Sparkington Street, Apt 7, Jamaica Queens, NY 12345 Also, Queens is not a county, it's a borough.
Just to elaborate: Jamaica is a neighborhood, not a city and Queens is the borough, (county), not normally used in a postal address but might be used in other addresses like your voter registration. I trust @Wreybies knows something about the unique situation in NY. Here in Seattle if you listed the neighborhood instead of the city, the post office might return the mail to the sender. I had a batch of mail to one fire department returned despite having the correct zip code because the area had been incorporated and needed a new city name. It was annoying because the post office knew full well where to deliver the mail.
I know in Boston, some parts of Boston are used instead of "Boston" itself. For example, my husband used to live in a section of Boston called Allston, and mail could come to Allston, MA or Boston, MA. The most important thing was the zip code. I would guess that it would be the same in NYC, but there could be idiosyncrasies of individual post offices. So, I'm surprised to hear that the post office refused to deliver that one piece of mail, because I've generally had pretty good luck with them, as they have genuinely wanted to deliver the mail to the proper place and get it out of their hands.
You people are all weird. When I send a package to my grandmother all I do is put Diane [REDACTED] Red Feather Lakes, CO on the package. She's had the same mailman for the last 18 years. Even if she got a new guy, all he would have to do is ask anyone working in the mail room where she lived.
Also to the Original Poster, the format looks something like: Name of the recipiant Street address Apartment number or similar City, State* Zip code** *The postal system uses a two letter abreviation system for all state names. Both letters are always capitalized. For New York it would be NY. **This is a five digit number and can be extended an extra five four numbers. Most post offices are fine with just the first five, and most computers will fill in the next five four going by the street address
Technically, the ZIP code is supposed to be on the same line as the city and state. And it's an extra 4 numbers, not an extra 5.
If you deliver the mail everyday in a town of 500-600 people, you probably do get to know where they all live.
Well I'm glad somebody knew, I just took a stab. And I was taught in grade school that the zip is on a separate line.
Doesn't happen around here. We've had a new mailperson about every year. Lots of turnover at our local post office, I guess.
No, no. The extra numbers that no one ever remembers and only get put on by computers and weirdos. They rolled them out sometime in the 1980s, we all had to learn ours in school, no one cared.
Also, none of this applies if you live in the bigger cities in Utah where they have this grid/quadrant system that actually makes a lot of sense if it weren't also tied to their religion because their main temple at the X-Y intersection (exact middle of town) is 0, 0 in their system.
I find that really funny because most of us put the ZIP on that last line, separate, but our grade school teachers were ADAMANT that no no no, the zip went on that same line, after the state, and that putting it on the next line was only for situations where there wasn't enough room, but it was IMPROPER!!!!! They got really bent out of shape about it.
Only this forum would have a dozen posts past the one that had a reasonably complete answer. http://www.bitboost.com/ref/international-address-formats/united_states/ I put the zip code wherever it fits.
My wife also agrees that the zip should be on the same line as the state, which is why I also agree that this is the case.
I always enjoy seeing addresses in the UK that often look something like: John Bull Radcliffe Estate Wheezle Stumps
Just wanted to add that sometimes in the US there is an extra line above the recipients name that refers to the organization or company that the person is a part of. For example you could have: Company Name Recipient Name Street Address Apartment # (doesn't necessarily exist, if not then exclude) City, State Zip code There is just a space between the two letter state designation and the zip code number, not another comma.
When I was little, we lived at: 5, Bowling Green Lane, Albrighton Near Wolverhampton Shropshire. Now, Wolverhampton is in Staffordshire, not Shropshire... and the reason why we had to put "Near Wolverhampton" was that there are 2 villages called Albrighton in Shropshire...I suppose the other one would have used "Near Shrewsbury". I suppose that, now that we have postcodes, this distinction is no longer necessary.
Actually Queens is both a county and a borough. New York is weird in that the city limits actually take in five boroughs which are treated as county level governments by New York State. So there is a borough of Queens but it's also call Queens County (it's even weirder in that the borough of Brooklyn is also a county but for those purposes it's called "Kings County"). It's worth noting that the address is almost always going to be laid out in three lines, and since you're in New York City I would assume it includes an apartment number. This is pretty universal globally but just in case, here is how it would look on a US envelope assuming he lives at apartment number 405: John Doe 4230 Hampton Street, #405 New York, NY 11373 Here's a list of Queens postal codes http://queens.about.com/od/neighborhoods/a/zip-codes-queens-ny.htm If you're writing in Queens specifically I would also note that Queens is one of the most ridiculously ethnically diverse localities in the country if not the world. It's not entirely the NYC stereotype from the movies. There are huge immigrant communities - including the biggest Asian community outside the West Coast. In fact, a Queens-based district recently elected the first-ever Chinese-American member of Congress from the East Coast. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Queens Anthony Bourdain did a really good episode of his show "No Reservations" on the Outer Boroughs of New York and put in a really interesting look at Queens specifically. So that's something to look at.
I have two residences here in PR and two VERY different address layouts. The house out "in the country" has a rural address that goes like this: Sector Name, Ward Name Route #, Kilometer marker # City, State, Zip Needless to say, it is impossible to get mail at that address because Americans have no idea what to do with it, so I also have a PO Box at the local USPS post office in town. My other address is a condominium in the city of Caguas, and my mailing address there goes like: Name of Condominium Complex Box # City, State, Zip No street number. No street name. The name of my condo complex is the actual address.
