If I am writting to someone in Austria from the United States, via airmail, should I put “Austria” in the address or “Österreich”. I know it sounds stupid, but I don’t know better. I want it to end up in the right place.
Either would probably do, but I believe most people would put Austria. You will most likely go to the post office to find out how much postage, so why not ask them?
write it in whatever language the person at your post office speaks since he is the person who has to direct it there. Does that make sense?
BTW, we’ve already done this subject and you can probably find it if you do a search
Working with mail is my job, and can assure you that, as long as it’s not an imaginary place, the post office will figure out what you mean. So either will do.
Postal worker checking in here…
Definitely put “Austria”.** The general rule is to write the country name in the official language of the country it’s being posted from, and the rest of the address in the official language of the country it’s being posted to.**
Here in Australia, we get lots of mis-sent mail which was supposed to go to Austria. Most of it originated from Germany. This is because the sender didn’t obey the “language of place of posting rule”, and wrote it in English for some reason. The German mail sorters or machines, when working at speed, scan the address and mis-read it as “Australia”. They know Austria as “Osterreich” (too lazy to find the umlaut code), so they wouldn’t be on the lookout for this common error. The USPS, on the other hand, would be familiar with it.
“Osterreich” will almost definitely get your article to Austria, but it may be delayed if the sorter or machine doesn’t know this name for the country, and puts it in the “reject” bin for later examination.