How to pronounce "slash" in giving an address, meaning the corner of 2 streets? I live at 1/9 Park Lane. Should it be read as one slash nine Park Lane?
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That is how I'd expect it to be spoken or read.– PolymathSep 28, 2018 at 12:32
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3I’m skeptical that it means the corner of two streets.– JimSep 29, 2018 at 0:09
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2Addressing formats are highly dependent on locale, and how it is pronounced will likely depend on where the person pronouncing it calls home. Someone from Boston might interpret it as a fractional street number (i.e. one-ninth Park Lane). Someone from the borough of Queens in New York City might think it is a typo for a hyphenated street number. The slash is not used in U.S. or Canadian addressing so far as I can tell, so there is no convention otherwise on this side of the pond.– chosterSep 29, 2018 at 1:31
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3 Answers
I agree, in the US / is called "slash".
But perhaps something else is common in the UK.
I find this:
stroke
NOUN
2.2 A short printed or written diagonal line typically separating characters or figures
..
I think I saw this in the Terry Gilliam movie Brazil. In the big office building, the number on a door has a / character, but they pronounce it "stroke".
This may well be one of those common things showing significant regional variation.
In my part of the world (Melbourne, Australia), this address wouldn't refer to "the corner of 2 streets" as suggested in the question. It would mean "internal address 1" (e.g. a unit, an apartment, or in general the ordinal dwelling/office of several such on that site) at "street address 9 Park Lane".
As such, it would more often be read aloud as "one of nine Park Lane" or, to disambiguate, "unit one of nine Park Lane" (even if it's an apartment rather than a "unit"), although pronouncing the "/" as "slash" is also common.
Given it's spoken, I'm finding it hard to locate any online evidence to support this, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
answered Sep 28, 2018 at 23:57
Chappo Hasn't Forgotten MonicaChappo Hasn't Forgotten Monica
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In the US, / is pronounced slash. However, I would not have the foggiest idea what 1/9 Park Lane meant as an address. I might take a guess that it meant 9 Park Lane but the 1 would be a mystery. Likely, when you said that, I would say
Huh?
It certainly does not convey that you are at the corner of Park Lane and some other street, much less which of the four corners you are at.
The way we would say it here is:
I live at 9 Park Lane. That is at the corner of Park Lane and Parkland Avenue. The building is (some identifying characteristic of the building) and I'm in Apartment 6C.
As for what you would write down, if asked for your address in writing:
Apartment 6c
9 Park Lane
Park City
State, Zip Code
The mailman does not need to be told that you are on a corner, or if he does, you are in deep kimchi.
As for references, as @Chappo said, you'll just have to take my word for it. :)
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Thanks a lot for your answers. That's the usual way to identify the houses that are on the corner of 2 streets in Russia, Ukraine . So, as far as I can see there is no such thing in the English speaking countries. Sep 29, 2018 at 14:44