About the NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter
This NATO phonetic alphabet converter spells any text using the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet — A is Alfa, B is Bravo, C is Charlie, and so on to Zulu. Type a surname, a flight booking reference, a postcode, a serial number or an email address and it produces the code words to read out, letter by letter.
Phonetic spelling prevents mix-ups between letters that sound alike on a phone line or radio (B, D, P and T; M and N; F and S). It is standard in aviation, the military, emergency services and customer support, and is just as useful when you are giving your name to a call centre.
The official ICAO spellings "Alfa" and "Juliett" are used by default; switch to "Alpha" and "Juliet" if you prefer the common English spelling. Numbers can be read as ordinary words or with the ICAO radio pronunciations (Tree, Fower, Fife, Niner). Common symbols such as dot, dash and @ are spelled out too.
How to use the nato phonetic alphabet converter
- 1Type or paste the name, code or reference you need to spell.
- 2Choose official ICAO spellings (Alfa, Juliett) or common ones (Alpha, Juliet).
- 3Pick plain number words or ICAO radio numbers.
- 4Choose a one-line or one-character-per-line layout.
- 5Read the code words aloud, or copy them into a message.
Formula and method
Each letter is replaced by its code word from the ICAO/NATO radiotelephony spelling alphabet (Alfa, Bravo, Charlie … Zulu), ignoring upper or lower case. Digits become their number words, either plain English or the ICAO radio pronunciations Tree (3), Fower (4), Fife (5) and Niner (9), which are designed to stay distinct over noisy channels.
A few symbols are spoken as words (. Dot, , Comma, - Dash, / Slash, @ At); any other character is kept as typed. Spaces separate words: in one-line layout the code words for each word are joined by spaces and words are separated with a slash, and in per-line layout a blank line marks each space.
Worked examples
Spell a name and number
The 9 letters of MoneyDeck become Mike Oscar November Echo Yankee Delta Echo Charlie Kilo, and 42 is read as Four Two — 11 characters spelled, with a slash marking the space.
Booking reference with ICAO numbers
Using the ICAO radio pronunciations, 3 becomes Tree and 9 becomes Niner, while J uses the official spelling Juliett.
Email address, one character per line, common spelling
Each character gets its own line. With common spelling, J and A become Juliet and Alpha, and the @ and full stop are spoken as "At" and "Dot", as you would read out an email address.
Frequently asked questions
What is the NATO phonetic alphabet?+
It is the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet adopted by ICAO and NATO in the 1950s: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.
Why is it spelled "Alfa" and "Juliett"?+
ICAO chose these spellings so speakers of other languages pronounce them correctly: speakers of some languages would not read "ph" as an f sound, and the double t in "Juliett" stops French speakers treating the final t as silent.
Why do pilots say "Niner" and "Tree"?+
ICAO radio pronunciation changes some numbers so they cannot be confused over a noisy channel: "Niner" keeps nine distinct from five (and from the German "nein"), while "Tree", "Fower" and "Fife" are easier to tell apart than three, four and five on a poor radio link.
Is the NATO alphabet the same as the military or police alphabet?+
The NATO/ICAO alphabet is what most militaries, airlines and emergency services use today. Some police forces, particularly in the US, still use older alphabets such as Adam, Boy, Charles, so check your local standard.