Address and place of residence

Adresse und Wohnort

Distinguish a city from a full address, ask for an address politely, and give a simple model address.

Keep the city and the full address separate. Wo wohnen Sie? asks where someone lives; answer Ich wohne in Essen. With ich, wohnen becomes wohne. Wie ist Ihre Adresse? asks for the street and house number; answer Meine Adresse ist Musterstraße 10. Ihre is the polite ‘your’, while meine means ‘my’. Die Postleitzahl means postcode and is a form field label, not a complete address sentence. The ellipsis in Meine Adresse ist … marks information to insert; it is not spoken aloud.

City: Ich wohne in Essen. Street and number: Meine Adresse ist Musterstraße 10. Form field: die Postleitzahl.

Use these patterns when introducing where you live or completing a form. Check whether the other person needs only the city or the full address.

Do not say Ich wohnen in Essen. With ich, the verb is wohne: Ich wohne in Essen.

ich → wohne; city → in; full address → Adresse; postcode → Postleitzahl.

Use Berlin and the fictional Musterstraße 10: write one city sentence and one full-address sentence, then ask politely for an address.