Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Alpha to Zulu: The Phonetic Alphabet

Every letter of the alphabet has a word to describe and clarify it in transmission. We’ve all seen movie air traffic controllers and cops and military people use the Alpha Bravo Charlie code for non-civilian lingo like, “Tango 33, you’re cleared for takeoff on Runway Whiskey Two.”

Every once in a while I'll grasp for the right word to clarify a letter as I give a mix of letters and numbers over the phone to describe something like an account number. And it's hard to quickly think of just the right word that will unmistakably translate a letter as itself and not produce an "E" where there should be a "D."

So what are the words in such a spelling alphabet? The list below is from the NATO Phonetic Alphabet. All you have to do is memorize its 26 words and you'll never have a letter clarification problem again. As long as you don't mind sounding like an air traffic controller.

AlphaBravoCharlieDelta
EchoFoxtrotGolfHotel
IndiaJulietKiloLima
MikeNovemberOscarPapa
QuebecRomeoSierraTango
UniformVictorWhiskeyX-ray
YankeeZulu

No comments:

Post a Comment