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The inside address in business letters

(Structure and contents of the inside address in English business letters)

Contents

  1. Structure of the inside address
  2. Further explanations

How is the recipient address structured?

In both British and American English, the address of the recipient (inside address) follows this structure:

  1. Initially, the company name or the name of the recipient is written whereby the department may also be mentioned.
  2. After that, the house number follows before the street name.
  3. The next line contains the name of the place (town, city, etc.) and, then, the postal code (exception see below).
  4. Finally, the last line shows the country of destination, which, however, is only common in international letters.

Furthermore, the following small differences exist in both language varieties. Compare the two styles:

Example (British)

In British English, the postcode is often written under the place name:

Example of a British address

Example (American)

In American English, the street name is often followed by the apartment number, which is separated by a comma:

Example of an American address

Further explanations related to the ‘Inside address in business letters’

The following explanations are relating to the topic ‘Structure and contents of the inside address in English business letters’ and could therefore be helpful too: