Spell it so nobody mishears
Letters like B, D, P and T, or M and N, sound alike on a phone line. The NATO phonetic alphabet (officially the ICAO radiotelephony spelling alphabet) gives each letter a distinct code word understood worldwide: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.
The spellings Alfa and Juliett are deliberate: they’re pronounced correctly by speakers of many languages.
Using the converter
Type a name, booking reference, postcode or serial number. One line gives a sentence you can read out (words separated by a dot); Letter by letter lists each character with its code word. Accented letters are spelled as their base letter.
Radio digits uses the ICAO pronunciations designed for noisy radio (Wun, Too, Tree, Fower, Fife, Six, Seven, Ait, Niner) which aviation and maritime operators use. For a normal phone call, plain digits are clearer.
Worked example
Here is what the NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter returns for its built-in example. Settings used: Layout: One line; Radio digits (Niner, Fife): off. Click Try an example in the tool above to load it, then change it as you like.
QX7-B9 MüllerQuebec X-ray Seven - Bravo Nine · Mike Uniform Lima Lima Echo RomeoQuestions
Why is it spelled “Alfa” and not “Alpha”?
ICAO chose “Alfa” and “Juliett” so speakers of languages where “ph” or a single final “t” would be misread pronounce them correctly.
Why do pilots say “niner”?
To keep nine from being confused with the German “nein” or with five over a noisy radio channel.
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