#Numeric portion of street address how to#
One part of a street name that can be a little confusing is how to abbreviate the word that follows the name of your street. That is, the name “Doaks Ferry Road” is “Doaks Ferry” and not “Doaks ferry.” If you have a street name with multiple words, you should capitalize each, as street names are proper nouns. Some street names are a single word, while others may contain several. Street signs typically list both names, so make sure you are writing down the street name that faces you when you are standing on your own street. You most likely already know the name of the street where you live, but if you aren’t sure you can walk to the nearest intersection and check the name listed on the street sign there. Much like how we tell buildings apart by their numbers, it has long been common practice to name streets. The street name is another easy-to-understand part of your address. The number 32-684 is very different from the number 32684! If your number does have a hyphen, be sure to include it when filling out a form or addressing an envelope. Some building numbers are hyphenated, but this is uncommon. That is, if your house number is 326 you should write down 326 instead of three-hundred and twenty-six. When you are typing or writing the building number as part of address line 1, make sure you are using roman numerals instead of spelling out each number as a word. No matter where your number is located, it should be visible from the road. Other common places for building numbers are the curb at the edge of the street or the mailbox. If you aren’t sure what your building number is, try checking somewhere on the side of the building.Īs a general rule, building numbers are typically painted or attachedto the buildings they represent. You shouldn’t add a comma along with either of the items in address line 1. Simply write or type the street number of your building or house, leave a space, and then finish off the line with your street name.
#Numeric portion of street address full#
Likewise, if you were giving a friend directions to your apartment on the phone, you wouldn’t just say, “It’s apartment 2b.”įirst, you need to provide directions to your specific street and inform your friend which building in the apartment complex is yours.Īddress line 1, then, can be seen as a kind of preview of the full address. If you think about it from the perspective of someone delivering mail, this makes perfect sense.īefore you worry about how to find the specific apartment someone lives in, or which department they work for, you need to make sure you’re at least on the right street. The most important thing about your address is your building number and street name.
The histor y is interesting but unnecessary if all you want to do is understand how to report your address. In the United States, formal efforts to normalize addresses began in the late 1800s and today are nearly complete. In the interest of clarity, any description below applies to addresses in the United States of America.Īlthough even young children can recite their address, the address system we use today is the end result of close to five hundred years of evolution. In this post, we’ll take a look at the parts of an address and clear up this mystifying mess.īefore we start, it’s worth noting that addresses are formulated differently around the world. Of course, things are even more confusing if you happen to have a nonstandard address or if you’re trying to get something sent to a specific department at a company or other organization.Īlthough the terminology used by forms and postal services can be confusing, entering your address is actually fairly easy.
What should be a simple matter of putting in a street name, a street number and possibly apartment or suite number becomes unnecessarily complicated by arcane terms like “address line 1” and requirements that you split your address into a number of separate pieces. Everyone knows their address, but it’s a fact that many people experience anxiety when asked to enter that address into a form or write it on an envelope.