The radio alphabet for spelling things out loud without mistakes — with pronunciations.
| Code word | Letter | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| Alfa | A | AL-fah |
| Bravo | B | BRAH-voh |
| Charlie | C | CHAR-lee |
| Delta | D | DELL-tah |
| Echo | E | ECK-oh |
| Foxtrot | F | FOKS-trot |
| Golf | G | GOLF |
| Hotel | H | hoh-TELL |
| India | I | IN-dee-ah |
| Juliett | J | JEW-lee-ett |
| Kilo | K | KEY-loh |
| Lima | L | LEE-mah |
| Mike | M | MIKE |
| November | N | no-VEM-ber |
| Oscar | O | OSS-car |
| Papa | P | pah-PAH |
| Quebec | Q | keh-BECK |
| Romeo | R | ROW-me-oh |
| Sierra | S | see-AIR-rah |
| Tango | T | TANG-go |
| Uniform | U | YOU-nee-form |
| Victor | V | VIK-tah |
| Whiskey | W | WISS-key |
| X-ray | X | ECKS-ray |
| Yankee | Y | YANG-key |
| Zulu | Z | ZOO-loo |
| Code word | Digit | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| Zero | 0 | ZEE-roh |
| One | 1 | WUN |
| Two | 2 | TOO |
| Three | 3 | TREE |
| Four | 4 | FOW-er |
| Five | 5 | FIFE |
| Six | 6 | SIX |
| Seven | 7 | SEV-en |
| Eight | 8 | AIT |
| Nine | 9 | NIN-er |
Over a noisy phone line or radio, "B", "P", "D" and "T" sound almost identical, so a single misheard letter can wreck a confirmation number or a name. The NATO phonetic alphabet — officially the ICAO/NATO spelling alphabet — fixes this by giving each letter a distinct word that can't be confused with any other. It's used in aviation, the military, emergency services and call centres, and it's handy any time you need to read out a code, licence plate or email over the phone. A couple of spellings look odd on purpose: Alfa and Juliett are spelled that way so speakers of other languages don't mispronounce them (a plain "Alpha" might lose its "ph" sound, and "Juliet" its final "t"). To spell out symbols and keys instead, see the keyboard symbols reference.