How to spell something the NATO way
Spelling alphabets exist because letters sound alike on a bad line: B, D, E, G, P, T and V are almost indistinguishable over a crackly phone call, and so are M and N or F and S. Replacing each letter with an agreed word that cannot be mistaken — Bravo, Delta, Echo — removes the guesswork. Type your text above and each character is shown with its code word; spaces between words are kept as gaps so the listener can hear where one word ends.
When you read it out, say each code word clearly with a short pause between letters, and say ‘space’ or pause for longer between words. For something like a postcode, most people read it in its natural groups: Sierra Whiskey One Alfa — Two Alfa Alfa. For passwords and case-sensitive codes, tick Say case so each letter is announced as Capital or Small; digits and symbols are always spelled explicitly so nothing is left to interpretation.
Accented letters such as é or ñ are spelled as their base letter and marked so you remember to mention the accent, and a character with no code word — an emoji, for example — is listed underneath rather than silently dropped.
The NATO phonetic alphabet and its pronunciation
The alphabet was adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization in 1956 after tests with speakers of English, French and Spanish, and NATO, the ITU and most emergency services use the same words. The spellings Alfa and Juliett are deliberate: ‘Alpha’ is pronounced wrongly by some French speakers and a single ‘t’ in Juliet can be read as silent. The chart shows the official ICAO respellings, with the stressed syllable written first in most words:
| Letters | Code words |
|---|---|
| A–G | Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf |
| H–N | Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November |
| O–U | Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform |
| V–Z | Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu |
Numbers have their own pronunciations to stop ‘five’ and ‘nine’ being confused on the radio: Tree for three, Fower for four, Fife for five and Niner for nine. Aviation uses these routinely; untick Tree, Fife, Niner if you would rather have the ordinary words. A full stop between digits is read as Decimal (DAY-SEE-MAL), as in One Two Tree Decimal Fife.
Older and national spelling alphabets
The Alphabet menu switches to other spelling alphabets you may still meet. The Western Union list (Adams, Boston, Chicago…) was used by US telegraph operators in the early twentieth century. The RAF and US WWII alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog…) is the one heard in wartime films; it was replaced in 1956 because several words were hard for non-English speakers. The chart puts the NATO word beside each one so you can compare.
German speakers use DIN 5009. The traditional names — Anton, Berta, Cäsar, Dora — are still what most people say on the phone, and include words for Ä, Ö, Ü, ß and the combinations Ch and Sch. In 2022 the standard replaced the personal names with German towns and cities (Aachen, Berlin, Chemnitz…), and umlauts became Umlaut Aachen and so on. Both versions are here, with digits and punctuation named in German, and speech uses a German voice when your device has one.
Listening, copying and learning
Listen reads the spelling aloud with your device’s built-in voices, highlighting each word as it is spoken; set the speed with the slider and choose a voice if your system offers several. Speech is produced locally by your browser, so voices differ between Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, and a few browsers have no voices at all — in that case the button is disabled. Tap any word in the result or the chart to hear just that one.
Copy spelling gives you plain text in the layout you chose: one ‘A – Alfa’ line per character (with pronunciations if they are switched on), or a single line of code words with an em dash between words, ready to paste into a chat or email. The plain-text version is also shown under the result.
To learn the alphabet, use Test yourself: type the code word for the letter shown and keep your streak going. Most people know all 26 after a few sessions. If you are spelling out a password, you can create a strong one first with the password generator; for spelling in code rather than speech, try the Morse code translator.
Frequently asked questions
What is the NATO phonetic alphabet?
It is the set of 26 code words — Alfa, Bravo, Charlie through to Zulu — used to spell letters clearly over radio and telephone. It was adopted by ICAO in 1956 and is used by NATO, aviation, shipping, the police, emergency services and customer-service teams worldwide. Digits have their own spoken forms such as Tree and Niner.
Is it Alpha or Alfa, Juliet or Juliett?
The official ICAO and NATO spellings are Alfa and Juliett. They were chosen so that speakers of other languages pronounce them correctly — ‘ph’ is not read as ‘f’ in every language, and a double t stops the final letter being treated as silent. Alpha and Juliet are widely used informally and are accepted in the quiz.
How do I spell my name phonetically?
Type your name into the box and read out the code words shown, one per letter. For example, Sarah is Sierra Alfa Romeo Alfa Hotel. If your name has an accented letter, say the base letter's code word and mention the accent. Press Listen to hear how it sounds before you use it on a call.
How do you say numbers in the phonetic alphabet?
In aviation and military radio, digits are spoken one at a time with special pronunciations: Zero, Wun, Too, Tree, Fower, Fife, Six, Seven, Ait and Niner. Decimal points are read as Decimal, and round figures can use Hundred and Thousand. Untick the Tree, Fife, Niner option for ordinary number words.
Why can’t I hear anything when I press Listen?
Speech uses your device's own text-to-speech voices. Check your volume and that the tab isn't muted, and try another voice from the list. Some browsers on Linux and some privacy-focused browsers ship without voices, in which case the Listen button is disabled. On iPhone, the silent switch also silences web speech.
Which phonetic alphabet do the police use?
UK police forces and most police services in Europe, Australia and North America use the NATO alphabet, the same as the military and aviation. Some US police departments still use an older APCO alphabet with words such as Adam, Boy and Charles, but NATO is the international standard and the safest choice.