Pronouncing five-digit address numbers

[kphoger]

I've found that multiple zeroes in a number can cause confusion in general.

Take, for example, the number 20006.  The number is properly, of course, twenty thousand six.  However, some people say the number as "two thousand six".  This is often because, I assume, they're not sure at a quick glance where the comma should go.  However, I suspect it's possible that some of them are breaking the number up into two chunks of five and one digit each (2000—6).

I've dealt with this when field techs call in with a work order code.

[catch22]

In my long-ago days at the telephone company, we were taught to always say each number individually and distinctly, whether it be street addresses or telephone numbers.

555-2097 is pronounced in telco-speak as "five, five, five (pause) two, zero (NEVER the letter "O"), nine-un, (two syllables to make it distinct from five), seven."  I guess it stuck, since I still do that.  My five-digit house number has two consecutive zeros in the middle of it, and I always say "zero zero" and never "oh oh."

(The reason for never using "O" to mean "zero" is because the letter O on phone dials appears on the #6 button (or dial pull, if you're that old), and believe it or not that confused some folks.)

[JMoses24]

I do each digit individually since I live at a 5 digit address.

[NWI_Irish96]

I've never personally lived or worked anywhere with a 5-digit address, but I generally hear others use two main ways:

1) In a big city/suburbs, especially with numbered streets > 100, 17624 is most often one seventy-six twenty-four
2) In rural areas, 17624 is most often seventeen six twenty-four

I did have one person once say 17624 as seventeen sixty-two four and it sounded so weird it took me a while to figure out what they meant.

[kphoger]

I did have one person once say 17624 as seventeen sixty-two four and it sounded so weird it took me a while to figure out what they meant.

When I answer the phone for credit card scammers, I give them a bogus Visa number whose check digit still works (but fails a bin lookup).  In order to help keep the conversation going as long as possible (and thereby keep them from actually scamming anyone during that time), I like to read the number quickly but group random pairs of digits together.  So, for example, the string 954611236 I might read as "nine five four sixty-one one twenty-three six".  This prompts them to have me read the number again, whereupon I group different pairs of digits together.  So I might say "nine fifty-four six eleven two thirty-six".

I also give them a false name and an address and postal code from Mexico–the latter of which also happens to be a ZIP code in rural North Carolina.  For vehicle warranty scammers I say I have a 2008 Mercedes Trailblazer, then they ask if I meant to say Chevy, and I insist it's not the Chevy Trailblazer but rather the Mercedes Trailblazer (which was a bicycle, but only two of them have figured that out so far).  I have way too much fun with these criminals...

[webny99]

I've always pronounced all five numbers individually so there's no confusion.

I use each individually.  It doesn't "sound" right to do it any other way.

+1, +1.

Or is that +11?

[kphoger]

+1

That's the country calling code for the USA and other places in the NANP.

+11

No such country code.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

+1

That's the country calling code for the USA and other places in the NANP.

+11

No such country code.

+34 .

(Sorry, I couldn't resist)

[FrCorySticha]

At the beginning of July, I moved to a house with a 5-digit address - 13327 - located along a state highway. The address, like many rural addresses in Montana is actually the point of the house along the highway, so my house is at (imaginary) mile marker 133.27 of the state highway, or .27 miles from the 133 mile marker.

For this reason, I've found myself saying one thirty-three twenty-seven.

[mapman]

There's a street in Santa Cruz County, California where some of the house numbers use spaces or a dash, i.e., 2 2670 East Cliff Drive or 2-2670 East Cliff Drive.  I assume that is pronounced like the third or fourth options, say, 'two-twenty-six-seventy'.  That's the only street that I've ever come across where the house number is displayed like that.

https://goo.gl/maps/E6iU1jKDN4KbDBwC6 

[MCRoads]

Looking at this thread, I first thought "thank god I don't have a 5-digit address" ... then I remembered how to count...

In all seriousness, I pronounce my address like "four-twenty sixty-nine" . (Fake address, obviously. No doxxing here.)

[kphoger]

There's a street in Santa Cruz County, California where some of the house numbers use spaces or a dash, i.e., 2 2670 East Cliff Drive or 2-2670 East Cliff Drive.  I assume that is pronounced like the third or fourth options, say, 'two-twenty-six-seventy'.  That's the only street that I've ever come across where the house number is displayed like that.

https://goo.gl/maps/E6iU1jKDN4KbDBwC6 

For something kind of related, check out this post.

[debragga]

Looking at this thread, I first thought "thank god I don't have a 5-digit address" ... then I remembered how to count...

In all seriousness, I pronounce my address like "four-twenty sixty-nine" . (Fake address, obviously. No doxxing here.)

Nice.

[Brandon]

As we run into 5-digit addresses here, near Chicago, I usually use the following format, nnn-nn, i.e. 135, 01 "one thirty five, oh one".  This is due to the prevalence of the streets being numbered at least as far out as Kendall County on the west, and Kankakee County on the south.  Hence, an address that starts "135" is south of 135th Street, up to 1/8 of a mile.  Then it switches to start with "136", south of 136th Street (and so on).

[hotdogPi]

My favorite 5-digit number is 47058.

47058 = 2 * 3 * 11 * 23 * 31; 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/11 + 1/23 + 1/31 + 1/47058 = 1

This number is pretty obscure, though; the power of 2 mentioned in a previous post is much more obvious as to why it was chosen in an example.

[Brandon]

20092 = two double-o nine 2

I'd use "two hundred, ninety-two" to define its place as south of 200th Street or west of 200th Avenue here.

[hotdogPi]

20092 = two double-o nine 2

I'd use "two hundred, ninety-two" to define its place as south of 200th Street or west of 200th Avenue here.

Which is 292.

[Brandon]

20092 = two double-o nine 2

I'd use "two hundred, ninety-two" to define its place as south of 200th Street or west of 200th Avenue here.

Which is 292.

Which would be pronounced "two, ninety-two" as it's in the 200 block of somewhere.

Growing up, we used to have street signs like these in rural Will County: https://goo.gl/maps/AqJqKXyJxWfYkU5b9
However, they've gotten much rarer with time.

Even today, there are a lot of numbered streets that give five-digit addresses:
https://goo.gl/maps/RZqURsLKHFmrthaNA
https://goo.gl/maps/vyxu7gwAYMaWmmtt5

[1995hoo]

There's a street in Santa Cruz County, California where some of the house numbers use spaces or a dash, i.e., 2 2670 East Cliff Drive or 2-2670 East Cliff Drive.  I assume that is pronounced like the third or fourth options, say, 'two-twenty-six-seventy'.  That's the only street that I've ever come across where the house number is displayed like that.

https://goo.gl/maps/E6iU1jKDN4KbDBwC6 

My father's mother lived in a part of Queens (Far Rockaway) where some addresses have a hyphen between two two-digit numbers. She would say something like 20-46 as "twenty forty-six" without noting the hyphen was there. I don't know whether that's the routine way to say it.

[kphoger]

20092 = two double-o nine 2

I'd use "two hundred, ninety-two" to define its place as south of 200th Street or west of 200th Avenue here.

Which is 292.

And that's precisely why I don't say it that way.

Which would be pronounced "two, ninety-two" as it's in the 200 block of somewhere.

You might know that's how you'd say '292', but your goal is presumably for the other person to easily understand what number you're saying.

I used to dispatch for a field tech who would call in a work order alteration by saying something like "I need to add an eight hundred fourteen".  What he meant was to add an 80014 code, but I would instinctively type 814 and then wait for him to give me the final two digits of the code.

[PurdueBill]

20092 = two double-o nine 2

I'd use "two hundred, ninety-two" to define its place as south of 200th Street or west of 200th Avenue here.

Reminds me of plugs on game shows.  Rod Roddy doing the Price Is Right ticket plug: "nine double oh three six" for 90036.  Johnny Gilbert reading an address to send your info if you were interested in being a Jeopardy! contestant: "nine double zero three eight" but a ticket plug by Johnny once used "nine double oh two eight"...maybe it depended on his mood as he read it!

[CtrlAltDel]

I'd use "two hundred, ninety-two" to define its place as south of 200th Street or west of 200th Avenue here.

Which is 292.

Which would be pronounced "two, ninety-two" as it's in the 200 block of somewhere.

A lot of this depends on familiarity with the area. If a local is giving an address to another local, saying something like "two hundred, ninety-two" would probably be okay, but if giving an address to an out-of-towner, it probably wouldn't be.

[sparker]

When I lived in Portland, OR, my address number was (barely) five digits: 10005.  When asked, I'd generally say "one-triple-oh-five".  But that was an outlier.  During my time living in the Inland Empire, I had two 5-digit numbers, one back in the '60's in Loma Linda when I attended UCR, and more recently in Hesperia.  The former was a real doozy: 25467 (blocks counted from the L.A. county line between Pomona and Montclair); for the 6 months I lived there it was "two-fifty-four-sixty-seven".  The same applied for my Hesperia number: 16375:  "one sixty-three-seventy-five".  In both instances, my immediate neighbors used the same descriptive term for their addresses, so given a lack of variation, I never changed my own rendering of the addresses.  Maybe it's just a San Bernardino County idiom, but it seems to be more or less universally accepted in that region.

[kphoger]

When I lived in Portland, OR, my address number was (barely) five digits: 10005.  When asked, I'd generally say "one-triple-oh-five".

I would say "ten double-o five" for some reason.

A field tech I referenced earlier would have called in such a work order code as "one thousand and five".  Boo!