# Question for non Americans - mailing addresses **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 29, 2015, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634 "2015-12-29T12:20:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/21 "2015-12-29T15:58:05Z")
The Cayman Islands Postal Service does not offer delivery to the home. So we have P.O. Boxes and the package delivery services such as DHL or FedEx _might_ try to delivery to a street address. Typical addressing might go something like this: Iggy P.O. Box 123 Grand Cayman KY1-1234 CAYMAN ISLANDS or for a street address Iggy 12 Main St George Town Grand Cayman CAYMAN ISLANDS Of note, postal codes are a recent invention. Only in the last few years. The postal code starts with KY1, KY2, or KY3 which determines which of our three islands the address refers to. The last four digits code which specific post office the P.O. Box is located. So for postal addresses there is no need to state which town the address is located. However the island name is given even though that is coded into the postal code. For street addressing the town is needed, even though we do not duplicate road names (with a very few exceptions). Unfortunately many island residents are not familiar with addressing conventions and may give an address of 12 Main St when they really live in Apartment #12 in some unknown building on Little Lane, which is itself off of Side Street which comes off Main St. This provides plenty of opportunity for confusion so best to just put the recipient’s phone number on the package too so they can be called to come to the office to pick up an item. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/22 "2015-12-29T16:07:57Z")
A couple of interesting examples. CHINA Following the same principle as family name preceding given name, street addresses are written with largest geographic entity first, addressee’s name last. But this doesn’t apply if you address a letter in English & pinyin. > **[How to Write a Postal Address in Chinese | East Asia Student](https://eastasiastudent.net/china/mandarin/postal-address/)** > > The rules for formatting and writing an address are quite different in Chinese. Find out how to do it properly to make sure your letter is delivered quickly and correctly. COSTA RICA Most of the country doesn’t really have street addresses. It’s common to write an address as something like _200 meters west of Macdonalds, opposite the school football field_. Unsurprisingly, the mail service is inefficient and corrupt. The country is a strange mix of backward in some areas, highly advanced in others - most of the country seems to have better cell service than the U.S. I think they should forget about trying to get people to use street grids and go straight to using GPS coordinates. > **[Costa Rica Addresses Its Lack of Street Names](https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304870304577489094121477570)** > > Costa Rica is on a quest to end the colorful life of its quirky yet costly address system, but there are roadblocks ahead. People use distances from landmarks to guide taxis, delivery trucks and, of course, postmen. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/23 "2015-12-29T16:15:31Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Ok, related. > > In the US lets say you have to send a letter to a person who might work at a certain company. > > So lets say you want to mail a letter to Mickey Mouse and you know he works at the Disney Headquarters then you might see: > > Disney Headquarters > 101 Happy Lane > Los Angeles California, 90210 > Att: Mickey Mouse > > Or the same lets say you are sending in your resume to the Human resources department at Disney then you would see: > > Disney Headquarters > 101 Happy Lane > Los Angeles California, 90210 > Att: Human Resources Just for completeness sake, the comma goes between city and state. Disney Headquarters 101 Happy Lane Los Angeles, California 90210 Att: Mickey Mouse If use an ATTN: I always write it on the bottom edge of the envelope, away from the address. That’s generally for internal use (once it gets to where it’s going), not for Post Office use. I would re-write your address like this: Mickey Mouse Disney Headquarters 101 Happy Lane Los Angeles, California 90210 ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/24 "2015-12-29T16:16:00Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > Our family have relations in New Zealand; and I am favourably impressed by the NZ authorities’ handling of this matter. With the country being mostly rural with – by general global standards – a tiny population: postcodes, zip codes, what-have-you, are not functionally necessary. And, cheeringly, they are not used: addresses work in the same way as they did in the UK fifty-plus years ago. It’s as simple as > > 2 Silver Fern Street > WAIKIKAMOUKAU > NZ > > –usually, no need even to bother with specifying North or South Island. Humans being the way they are, I’d not have found it surprising if New Zealand officialdom had felt that though the country does not need postcodes / zip codes; they would be introduced anyway, so that NZ could feel that it was at the cutting edge of things, and was keeping up with the postal Joneses. Admirably good sense has obtained here. Re New Zealand: I posted the above in good faith; but have just happened to notice the envelope which held a Christmas card to me, from a cousin in NZ. The “sender’s address” on the back of the envelope runs: House number and street City name NZ [four-figure numerical code] I’m sure the “code” part is new – but it appears that in this matter, the Kiwis have fallen into line with more-or-less the rest of the developed world. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/25 "2015-12-29T16:18:45Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I just tried ordering off Amazon for someone in Guatemala, and i just could not get it to figure out the address. There’s no postal code. There’s no street. There’s no house number! It’s basically, take this package to Bob, thanks. Yeah, he’s somewhere in Guatemala over thereish. It’s the same in Costa Rica (does anybody know if _el higuerón_, the big fig tree, is still used as a reference in San José? It only got chopped down some 40 years ago). I went to the doctor once, and the doctor, the lab and the pharmacy all shared the same front gate… but gave their adresses differently. Anyone who knew the area would understand that “West of the mango tree” (which grew in the middle of a street, and I mean in the middle), “250m north of Banco Pichincha” (actually not North by the compass, but parallel to the so-called north direction of the Panamericana) and “250m north of the pizzeria” (which was across the street from Banco Pichincha) were the same… but get a computer program to understand any of them! My area of Spain often gets placenames written in the form NameinSpanish/NameinBasque or viceversa, if it’s for the Post Office. If it’s for anything else, we need to pick the version that GPS assign to our chunk of the street. Apparently their databases just aren’t prepared for bilingualism; if I give my adress in Spanish people end up in front of the _Casa de Cultura/Kulturetxea_, phoning me to say they can’t find number 6. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/26 "2015-12-29T16:20:35Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Ok. But where would you write the persons name and what if it is an apartment building? The person’s name is the first line. Each apartment within the building will have its own number so eg John Smith Flat 12 Riverside Building Underwater Road Floodtown FL13 5QX ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/27 "2015-12-29T16:34:45Z")
City addesses in Thailand resemble U.S. addresses, but rural addresses in Thailand have no street name: House\_# Village\_# / Subdistrict / District / Province / Zipcode. How about rural addresses in other countries? Do they have street names? (Street names may be impossible here because _rural streets don’t have names_! For more than 20 years I’ve lived on a long major road connecting a dozen villages and providing access to dozens more but when I made inquiries long ago about the road’s name I was met with blank stares. “We don’t talk that way; we just say we’re going to such-and-such village.”) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/28 "2015-12-29T16:36:06Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > One thing I would point out is that in the US it is very uncommon to see the state spelled out like in these examples. I just checked some mail lying around at my house. All the letters had the two letter state abbreviation. So the address from above would more commonly be written as. > > Disney Headquarters > 101 Happy Lane > Los Angeles, CA 90210 > Att: Mickey Mouse > > As noted above the comma separates city and state. But I noticed maybe 1/2 the letters had no comma at all. Official Postal Service style calls for no punctuation anywhere in the address and also calls for all capitals. But we aren’t required to use official style. I always spell out the state name and I use punctuation. I hate the two-letter abbreviations. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/29 "2015-12-29T16:45:52Z")
Me too. I never abbreviate the street name either. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/30 "2015-12-29T17:00:43Z")
It seems rather clear to me why a mail delivery service would seek standardization, and why it would be sensible to overcome one’s animosity to those newfangled two-letter state abbreviations to cooperate. But what do I know, where I grew up the Queen was in charge of the post office. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/31 "2015-12-29T17:04:17Z")
Since the OP is asking about personal experiences, let’s move this to IMHO. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/32 "2015-12-29T17:04:26Z")
Back in the UK, all mail is mechanically scanned, and it’s the postcode that sends it to the nearest sorting office to the recipient. After that it is sorted by the posties and hand delivered to our front door letterboxes. One of our Christmas cards this year had our correct name and postcode, but the wrong (non existent) street. It found us somehow. Delivery drivers depend on postcodes for their satnavs to find the address. The street number and postcode will take them to the door. This is not perfect though - as a truck driver, I sometimes found myself at the front door of some large organisation, while deliveries were taken some distance away. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/33 "2015-12-29T17:05:40Z")
They’re not newfangled from my perspective. They’ve been around since as long as I can remember. But they are clearly unnecessary, particularly given that we use a zip code. Furthermore, two-letter abbreviations create a greater opportunity for error and ambiguity than full state names. And not using them clearly doesn’t interfere with mail delivery. Given all that, plus the fact that they’re aesthetically ugly, I feel no need to conform. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/34 "2015-12-29T17:21:04Z")
Like Guatemala and Costa Rica mentioned above, Panama doesn’t really have street addresses. There is no home mail delivery, so people receive their mail at a post office box. The government mail service is unreliable so businesses rely on courier services for delivery of anything important. It can be a hassle trying to figure out where a business is. The yellow pages may show a map, or say something like “50 meters past the MacDonald’s on 50th Street.” But most apartment buildings and commercial centers have names that taxi drivers may know. Even street names are not well established. The name that everyone calls a street may be different from the official name on a map. Taxi drivers may not know the official name of even major streets. If I call a dispatch taxi, I give the name of my building and the two streets that form the intersection (although I give the name of the cross street as “48th Street” instead of its map name of Avenida 3ra Sur, which I have never heard anyone use). But the easiest way to make sure the taxi driver finds it is to give directions with reference to nearby landmarks, including the Comptroller’s Office, Habibi’s Restaurant, and _Mundo de Los Globos_ (Balloon World, a party supply store). ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/35 "2015-12-29T17:23:58Z")
When I lived in Chile, the only difference was the street name came before the house number, which I think is the case in nearly all countries: Name Magallanes 728 Quintero In Leon, Nicaragua, there were no street names nor addresses. There would be an address like “Two blocks west, one block north, of the San Leandro Church”, and the postman knew everyone. If he didn’t know, he would go two blocks west and one north of the San Leandro Church and ask around. In Amman, Jordan, in the 1970s, there were no addresses nor street names, and in general, people did not get private mail delivery. If one needed to receive something by mail, he would have it sent to a nearby shop or business known to the post office, and it would be delivered to the business or to its PO box. The private person would just go around to the place of business and ask if any mail had come for him. Businesses knew that this was the widely-used custom, and in effect, every business became a de-factco postal substation. When I lived in St. Anselm, New Brunswick, Canada, my road had a name, but it was of no postal relevance. If my house had a number, I never knew what it was. My address was simply Saint-Anselme, Nouveau Brunswick, and it went to a lady’s house, who was the designated “post office”. All mail for the village went to her house, and residents stopped by every day on the way home from work to ask if there was any mail for them. All of the above have probably changed since then – I think now virtually every country has at least postal codes. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/36 "2015-12-29T17:28:54Z")
In much of the US, the ZIP+4 uniquely identifies the postal route. I have a friend who started just writing John Jones 12345-6789 on his letters, and they were mostly delivered on time. (The local poasman knowing which house John Jones lived in.) I have a friend who was a Chinese woman at a major university in Japan. She once received a letter addressed to Her Full Name Japan It took a while to find her, but it DID find her. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/37 "2015-12-29T17:29:07Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > The last line is the postcode, which uses an arcane system to specify a group of usually a few dozen addresses, sometimes even a single building. For all intents and purposes, in the US and UK, you could give the street address and the post code/zip code and very accurately get your letter where you wanted it to go. I.e. putting in “10927 Sharpview 77072-3007” gets you where you’re going - the 77072 denotes part of Houston, TX, and the “-3007” specifies the street addresses between 10903 and 10931 (7 houses). Adding the “Houston, TX” is kind of redundant, as the sorting equipment at the USPS will sort it down to the delivery person’s flat, and all they have to do is look whether it’s 10927, 10923 or one of the other 5. Same thing with the MN1 2AB- it gets awfully granular as well. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/38 "2015-12-29T17:40:19Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > The person’s name is the first line. Each apartment within the building will have its own number so eg > > John Smith > Flat 12 > Riverside Building > Underwater Road > Floodtown > FL13 5QX Very topical! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/39 "2015-12-29T18:28:40Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > But they are clearly unnecessary, particularly given that we use a zip code. > Furthermore, two-letter abbreviations create a greater opportunity for error and ambiguity than full state names. > And not using them clearly doesn’t interfere with mail delivery. I know that the US system uses machine reading; there is manual backup of course, and you can’t really claim that something “doesn’t interfere with mail delivery” just because mail still arrives. It may be taking up unnecessary resources. If there is machine reading of zip codes, an obvious reason for an easily-read two digit state abbreviation is that it gives an error check against the zip, where’ you’d flag anything that didn’t match for manual intervention. Even if everything is manual, a standard format surely makes life easier for a postal worker scanning through masses of mail. It does not strike me as something where a desire to assert my Freedom outweighs trying to help out the post office by cooperating, even if I’m not worried about getting my mail delivered quickly and accurately. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634/40 "2015-12-29T18:36:24Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > In much of the US, the ZIP+4 uniquely identifies the postal route. I have a friend who started just writing > > John Jones > 12345-6789 > > on his letters, and they were mostly delivered on time. (The local poasman knowing which house John Jones lived in.) > > I have a friend who was a Chinese woman at a major university in Japan. She once received a letter addressed to > > Her Full Name > Japan > > It took a while to find her, but it DID find her. Hehe. That gives me and idea for a test. I know I am the only person with my name in Sweden, so next time I am abroad I am going to try exactly that. Or maybe get my parents to post something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-non-americans-mailing-addresses/741634.md?page=3)