The NATO (ICAO) phonetic alphabet gives each letter a word that is hard to mishear over a poor radio or phone line. It is used in aviation, shipping, the military and customer service. The NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter spells any text for you.
Letters
| Letter | Word | Pronunciation | Letter | Word | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Alfa | AL-fah | N | November | no-VEM-ber |
| B | Bravo | BRAH-voh | O | Oscar | OSS-cah |
| C | Charlie | CHAR-lee | P | Papa | PAH-pah |
| D | Delta | DELL-tah | Q | Quebec | keh-BECK |
| E | Echo | ECK-oh | R | Romeo | ROW-me-oh |
| F | Foxtrot | FOKS-trot | S | Sierra | see-AIR-rah |
| G | Golf | GOLF | T | Tango | TANG-go |
| H | Hotel | hoh-TELL | U | Uniform | YOU-nee-form |
| I | India | IN-dee-ah | V | Victor | VIK-tah |
| J | Juliett | JEW-lee-ett | W | Whiskey | WISS-key |
| K | Kilo | KEY-loh | X | Xray | ECKS-ray |
| L | Lima | LEE-mah | Y | Yankee | YANG-key |
| M | Mike | MIKE | Z | Zulu | ZOO-loo |
Digits
| Digit | Word | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Zero | ZEE-roh |
| 1 | One | WUN |
| 2 | Two | TOO |
| 3 | Three | TREE |
| 4 | Four | FOW-er |
| 5 | Five | FIFE |
| 6 | Six | SIX |
| 7 | Seven | SEV-en |
| 8 | Eight | AIT |
| 9 | Nine | NIN-er |
Capitalised syllables are stressed. The ICAO spellings are Alfa and Juliett; many people write "Alpha" and "Juliet", and the site's tool uses the common spellings.
Using it
- Spell the tricky parts, not the whole message: a booking code
CABis read "Charlie Alfa Bravo". - Say digits in their phonetic forms in aviation (
tree,fife,niner), where they prevent mix-ups such as five and nine. - Say the word and then continue; avoid improvising other words, since the point is that both ends know the same list.
- For secret or fun encoding, see Morse Code Cheat Sheet or the ROT13 / Caesar Cipher.