How to spell with the NATO phonetic alphabet
- Type a name, email address, postcode, booking reference or serial number.
- Each character is shown with its code word: B becomes Bravo, 4 becomes Four. Capitals in mixed-case text are marked.
- Press Speak to hear it, or Copy to paste the spelling into a message or script.
- To go the other way, type code words in the decoder, for example "Hotel India", to get the letters back.
Why use a phonetic alphabet?
Many letters sound alike over the phone or radio: B, D, P, T and V, or M and N. The NATO phonetic alphabet, officially the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, gives each letter a distinctive word so it cannot be misheard. It was adopted in 1956 after testing with speakers of many languages and is used by pilots, air traffic controllers, the military, police, emergency services and call centres worldwide.
It is just as useful in everyday life: spelling your surname to a doctor's receptionist, reading out a flight confirmation code, giving an email address to customer support or dictating a Wi-Fi password. Note the official spellings "Alfa" and "Juliett", chosen so speakers of other languages pronounce them correctly, and "Niner" for 9 to avoid confusion with the German "nein".
The conversion runs in your browser, and speech uses your device's voices.
Is it Alpha or Alfa?
The official spelling is Alfa, and Juliett with two Ts, so that non-English speakers pronounce them correctly. Alpha is widely used informally.
How do you say numbers in the NATO alphabet?
Mostly as normal English numbers, with Niner for 9. Aviation also uses "Tree" for 3 and "Fife" for 5.
How do I spell an email address over the phone?
Spell the name part letter by letter with code words, then say "at" for @ and "dot" or "stop" for the full stop.