# Postal code after city



## Trad.HellenV

Hello!!

I was asked to complete an application for technical cooperation (it should be filled in English).  One of the blank spaces is for "Postal code before city" and another one is "Postal code after city".  I would like to know what am I supposed to write there.  I live in Costa Rica and we are not familiar with that.

It also has the lines: "Street address" and "P.O. Box".  I know what I am supposed to write in "P.O. Box".  I am not sure (and I would like to confirm this) if "Street Address" is like "1542 Main Street".

I really appreciate your help.

Hellen


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## wildan1

Trad.HellenV said:


> Hello!!
> 
> I was asked to complete an application for technical cooperation (it should be filled in English). One of the blank spaces is for "Postal code before city" and another one is "Postal code after city". I would like to know what am I supposed to write there. I live in Costa Rica and we are not familiar with that.
> 
> It also has the lines: "Street address" and "P.O. Box". I know what I am supposed to write in "P.O. Box". I am not sure (and I would like to confirm this) if "Street Address" is like "1542 Main Street".
> 
> I really appreciate your help.
> 
> Hellen


 
Some countries put their postal codes first (a lot of European countries) and others after (US & Canada). If you don't have postal codes in CR, just leave it blank.

Street address is the addres where you live. Even if you have a post office box, they might need the street address if they send you an express delivery by a private company (those companies don't accept P.O. Boxes because they always deliver directly to your house or office)


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## zxc

I don't know of any country (in Europe or elsewhere) that puts the postal code first. For internally sent mail in the UK it goes: Name, street address (usually house number then name of street), district (optional), town/city, postal code.

I read somewhere that if you are posting a letter to the UK from abroad then the proper way is to put the postal code at the very end (i.e. after the country), and as far as I know this applies to Canada too.

I don't really understand the "Postal code before/after city" thing, though. Maybe someone else will know...


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## wildan1

zxc said:


> I don't know of any country (in Europe or elsewhere) that puts the postal code first. For internally sent mail in the UK it goes: Name, street address (usually house number then name of street), district (optional), town/city, postal code.
> 
> I read somewhere that if you are posting a letter to the UK from abroad then the proper way is to put the postal code at the very end (i.e. after the country), and as far as I know this applies to Canada too.
> 
> I don't really understand the "Postal code before/after city" thing, though. Maybe someone else will know...


 
Well in France it goes: 75016 - Paris
In Germany it goes 10997 Berlin, etc.
So I guess the UK is an exception, or more like the US & Canada
(Where I live it goes: Washington, DC 20015 - USA for example). But as you see, every country is a bit different


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## Brioche

zxc said:


> I don't know of any country (in Europe or elsewhere) that puts the postal code first. For internally sent mail in the UK it goes: Name, street address (usually house number then name of street), district (optional), town/city, postal code.
> 
> I read somewhere that if you are posting a letter to the UK from abroad then the proper way is to put the postal code at the very end (i.e. after the country), and as far as I know this applies to Canada too.
> 
> I don't really understand the "Postal code before/after city" thing, though. Maybe someone else will know...


 

Here is a typical address in Germany
Deutsche Bahn AG
Deutz-Mülheimer Strasse 2
50679 Köln

The name of the street is Deutz-Mülheimer,
The number is the street is 2
50679 is the postal code, and Köln is the city.

An address in England
A Jones
18 Woodford Street, 
Swinton, 
Manchester M27 9UA

Manchester is the city
and M27 9UA is the postal code

It's quite common for addresses in the UK to have an extra village/suburb/district name between the name of the street and the name of the city.

A French address
Anne-Marie Dubois
28 avenue Pologne 
35200 RENNES

Rennes is the city, and 35200 is the postal code, and goes in front of the town name.

An Australian address
John W. Howard
144 Turon Parade 
Woolgoolga NSW 2456

Woolgoolga is the town/city/suburb
NSW = New South Wales is the state
2456 is the postcode


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## zxc

Ah, okay. I thought wildan1 meant putting the postal code as the first line of the address... seems I misunderstood.


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## Sepia

zxc said:


> I don't know of any country (in Europe or elsewhere) that puts the postal code first. For internally sent mail in the UK it goes: Name, street address (usually house number then name of street), district (optional), town/city, postal code.
> 
> I read somewhere that if you are posting a letter to the UK from abroad then the proper way is to put the postal code at the very end (i.e. after the country), and as far as I know this applies to Canada too.
> 
> I don't really understand the "Postal code before/after city" thing, though. Maybe someone else will know...



As far a I know all European countries exept The Irish Republic and the UK do. An I am not sure if the Netherlands still don't have a 4-digit code in front and 2-letter code behind the name of the city.


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## Etcetera

zxc said:


> I don't know of any country (in Europe or elsewhere) that puts the postal code first.


Russia.
Here the postal code is normally put before the address. 
On envelopes, there is a special space for postal code, usually in the bottom left corner. But if the address is written on a company's site, for instance, the postal code comes first.


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## Kajjo

Brioche said:


> An address in England
> A Jones
> 18 Woodford Street,
> Swinton,
> Manchester M27 9UA
> 
> It's quite common for addresses in the UK to have an extra village/suburb/district name between the name of the street and the name of the city.


Let me squeeze in a personal question: What are these villages, suburbs and district names supposed to do? English addresses appear to be much longer than other European addresses because of this, in my point of view, nonsense information. They not even fit in typical window envelopes. I started to omit all these redundant information and just use one "city / postal code" line and everything appears to work fine for me in international correspondence. So, why do English add these lines and make their life more complicated than necessary?

Kajjo


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## samanthalee

Kajjo said:


> So, why do English add these lines and make their life more complicated than necessary?



Allow me to let you in on a little secret. Singapore being such a small country, our addresses can actually be truncated to 2 items, that is the postal code and the apartment number.

But still we write everything, the block number, the street name, the building name ... just in case a digit in the postal code is wrong or something like that. The more information we put down, the lower the chance that a mail cannot be delivered due to the wrong address.

I'd imagine it's the same reason why English addresses are so long.


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## Brioche

Kajjo said:


> Let me squeeze in a personal question: What are these villages, suburbs and district names supposed to do? English addresses appear to be much longer than other European addresses because of this, in my point of view, nonsense information. They not even fit in typical window envelopes. I started to omit all these redundant information and just use one "city / postal code" line and everything appears to work fine for me in international correspondence. So, why do English add these lines and make their life more complicated than necessary?
> 
> Kajjo



For a letter to the UK, all you really need is 
the number and street name
the town, the postal code.

You don't need the district or the county.

In fact, just writing:
_A Jones
18 Woodford St
M27 9UA_
would be enough for a letter to get to an address in UK - not that I recommend it!

However, many people are quite proud of their villages/districts, which were once separate entities before being swallowed up by the "big city".

In a similar way, some folk in Germany will say they are from Altona or Harburg rather than Hamburg.


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## sarcie

Sepia said:


> As far a I know all European countries exept The Irish Republic and the UK do. An I am not sure if the Netherlands still don't have a 4-digit code in front and 2-letter code behind the name of the city.



Just to clarify: 

In Ireland, there are no postcodes for cities outside of Dublin. Therefore a Dublin address will look like this:
Name Surname
House no. Street
Dublin 14
Addresses on the northside of the city have uneven numbers (1, 3, etc.), even numbers on the southside (2, 4, etc.). As far as I know, the postcodes only go up to 24. 

Outside of Dublin, addresses look like this:
Name Surname
(House no. Street) / (Village/Townland)
County
In larger towns, there will be a number and street, in smaller rural areas, usually just the name of a village or area (townland) will suffice. 

In the Netherlands, the addresses are:
Name Surname
Street, House no. 
1234 XX Town/City


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## Jeedade

Sepia said:


> An I am not sure if the Netherlands still don't have a 4-digit code in front and 2-letter code behind the name of the city.


In the Netherlands the zipcode is composed of a 4-digit code and a two letter code, both are put before the town name, so a typical address would be:
Jan Janssen
Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 1
1234 AB Amsterdam

In reality the postal code and house number would be enough for a letter to arrive.


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## Outsider

Etcetera said:


> Russia.
> Here the postal code is normally put before the address.


In Portugal too.


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## Sepia

Jeedade said:


> In the Netherlands the zipcode is composed of a 4-digit code and a two letter code, both are put before the town name, so a typical address would be:
> Jan Janssen
> Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 1
> 1234 AB Amsterdam
> 
> In reality the postal code and house number would be enough for a letter to arrive.



Ah yes, that's it!

Before we got the 5-digit codes in Germany we used to have a small number behind the name of the city - at least in the bigger cities. (Also in those that do not have two different streets with the same name.)


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## Lugubert

Sweden nowadays requires addressee name, street name & number, and the postcode:

Anders Andersson
Storgatan 5
123 45 Lillköping

There are exceptions, of course.

A world record?
Until she passed away, picture post cards from all over the world addressed

Olga
Sweden

were delivered without any delay to the former caretaker woman at the Chalmers University of Technology. She had always a cup of coffee and a kind, listening ear for students in distress.


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## zxc

Kajjo said:


> Let me squeeze in a personal question: What are these villages, suburbs and district names supposed to do? English addresses appear to be much longer than other European addresses because of this, in my point of view, nonsense information. They not even fit in typical window envelopes. I started to omit all these redundant information and just use one "city / postal code" line and everything appears to work fine for me in international correspondence. So, why do English add these lines and make their life more complicated than necessary?
> 
> Kajjo


Actually, the only information you really need to post a letter to a normal residential address in the UK is the house number and the post code:

18, M27 9UA 

This works (I have tried it), but although your letter will get sorted correctly, it is not exactly very "postman friendly", so it's better to include more information.

Not sure what you mean about "nonsense information" that doesn't fit into typical window envelopes:

Deutsche Bahn AG
Deutz-Mülheimer Strasse 2
50679 Köln

A Jones
18 Woodford Street, 
Swinton, 
Manchester M27 9UA

Just one line extra (town district) than a typical German address, which is not always included and not required anyway. Besides, if there is a mistake in the rest of the address then I suppose including some extra information will make it less likely that the letter ultimately ends up being classed as undeliverable.


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## Kajjo

zxc said:


> Not sure what you mean about "nonsense information" that doesn't fit into typical window envelopes:


Sorry for the rude term, but I meant all these village and county information that are absolutely non-essential and disturbing. Your examples were clear and concise, but even _Swinton_ was superfluous. Check these:

Data Protection
Mazda Motors UK Ltd
_Riverbridge House
Anchor Boulevard
 Dartford
 Kent
_DA2 6QH

 I believe "Dartford DA2 6QH" as last line would have been fine and the italic lines could have been omitted.

Also I regard it as quite unclear to state:

                    1-5 Roebuck Road
                        Hainault
                        Essex
                        IG6 3TT

You not even know for what city IG stands for, but surely Hainault and Essex are non-essential.

Kajjo


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## zxc

I agree with you about the Data Protection one. I don't understand why companies make their addresses so complicated like that, it's not necessary at all and surely counterproductive. You could take two or three lines out of that address and it would still be acceptable.

As for the second example, you could remove the county name "Essex" and it would make no difference. You don't need to know what IG stands for, just as you don't need to know what 50679 means. I don't know how the postal code system works in Germany, but I used to write to two friends who lived in quite different parts of the same Spanish town and they had the same postal code. With the UK system, you're able to know the exact street, or even which part of the street, just with the postal code. That's why it's possible to post a letter using no more than the house number and the code... although it would always be advisable to include the name of the street and the town too if you don't want to give your postman problems.

But to sum up, I agree that UK postal addresses often include what could be considered superfluous information, even though, as explained, with our postal code system it's actually possible to include no more than a number and a five or six-digit code for your letter to arrive.


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## Brioche

Kajjo said:


> Sorry for the rude term, but I meant all these village and county information that are absolutely non-essential and disturbing. Your examples were clear and concise, but even _Swinton_ was superfluous.
> 
> Also I regard it as quite unclear to state:
> 
> 1-5 Roebuck Road
> Hainault
> Essex
> IG6 3TT
> 
> You not even know for what city IG stands for, but surely Hainault and Essex are non-essential.
> 
> Kajjo



The IG in IG6 3TT stands for Ilford.

A person's address is not used solely for postal purposes.

If I want to visit a person in UK it very useful to know the city and the county!

The "redundant" information also means that a postal article will get to the right address if the postal code is smudged, blurred, obliterated or slightly wrong.

It's possible to mis-hear, especially on the phone, and think it's M27 5UA instead of M27 9UA, or confuse FK with SK.


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## Trad.HellenV

Thanks to all for your comments.  I have the information I needed for this form.

Have a nice week!!

Hellen


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## slhardware

Trad.HellenV said:


> Hello!!
> 
> I was asked to complete an application for technical cooperation (it should be filled in English). One of the blank spaces is for "Postal code before city" and another one is "Postal code after city". I would like to know what am I supposed to write there. I live in Costa Rica and we are not familiar with that.
> 
> It also has the lines: "Street address" and "P.O. Box". I know what I am supposed to write in "P.O. Box". I am not sure (and I would like to confirm this) if "Street Address" is like "1542 Main Street".
> 
> I really appreciate your help.
> 
> Hellen


Hello, Hellen ;
Nice to meet you here,
I think you already got the answer through the answer of above.

In China, we'd like to describe the telephone number by three blank, the first one Country number (as china, 0086) , Area number (as my city 750) and the home number (home or office unmber )...

The Street address is the place where you live, the P.O.Box same as the Postal code in china..

Hoping my answer will let you know more clearly.

And one of my clients she also is from Costa Rica, she is a kind lady.
I think you too.


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## Flaminius

Japan uses zooming-in notation (not just for addresses but for many other naming conventions).

A typical domestic postal item contains; postal code, address (zooming-in) and addressee's name;

〒111-1111
神奈川県　鎌倉市　長谷12-13
山田　太郎

The first line is the postal code in 7 digits.  The symbol 〒 signifies that the numbers following it is a postal code.  Since it is rather self-evident that a seven-digit code before the location is a postal code, this symbol is sometimes omitted.
The second line is the addressee's location; from the prefecture (the largest municipal entity) down to the street address.  The first block in this line, the prefecture, is often omitted but a good disambiguator in case the next block or a similar name can be different smaller municipalities in different prefecture (ambiguous names in the same prefecture seem less likely).  Miss-delivery due to similar names are common because cities and townships have been merging and renaming for the last 10 or so years, producing similar fancy names by votes.  The street address is the third block in this line.  If the destination is an apartment, the building name and the room number follow.  The building number may be omitted if only one building is located on the street address.
The third line is the addressee's name; the family name and the given name, (zooming-in again).

While the combination of postal code, street number and addressee is enough to uniquely identify the destination of an envelop, prefecture, sub-municipalities and street name are not useless.  It is unrealistic, for example, to expect that a mail man  can go delivering only with codes.  Other uses such as back-up and disambiguation have been mentioned by others and myself.  Codes are for systems and the "redundant" place names are for humans.  Unlike the electronic world where rigorous standardisation is feasible (forum.wordreference.com means HERE whether you access the URL from Morocco or Mexico), physical delivery is fraught with ambiguities.  That's the reason I feel it safe to leave room for human interference.


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## Forero

When two smaller entities are gobbled up into a larger one, they may each have some of the same street names and numbers.  If the postal code is illegible or erroneous, you can fall back on the old system, already designed to minimize ambiguity.


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