NATO Phonetic Alphabet

How to spell with the NATO alphabet

1. Type the name, booking reference, postcode or serial number you need to spell in the input box. The spelling appears as you type; Spell it refreshes it.
2. Under Digits, choose Plain words (one, two, three…) for everyday use, or ICAO radio (Wun, Too, Tree, Fower, Fife, Niner…) for radio procedure.
3. Under Layout, pick On one line (words separated by /) to read it out, or One character per line (A – Alfa) to check each character.
4. Click Copy to paste the result into a message or a script. Open Full alphabet to see all 26 code words with their ICAO pronunciation.

Accented letters are spelled as their base letter (É → Echo), and letters such as ß are spelled as their usual equivalent (Sierra Sierra). Common punctuation is named (Dot, Dash, At, Slash…), and a point or comma between two digits is read as Decimal. Emoji and other scripts are kept as they are.

The alphabet and its official spellings

The alphabet used by NATO, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Telecommunication Union and the maritime world was adopted in the 1950s after testing with speakers of English, French and Spanish. Each word had to be recognisable through noise and by non-native speakers.

Two spellings surprise people: Alfa and Juliett. They are deliberate. Speakers of some languages do not read “ph” as an f sound, and a single final t in “Juliet” would be silent for French speakers, who would say “Julie”. The official lists write them Alfa and Juliett, and this tool follows them. X-ray is often written Xray or X-Ray; the meaning is the same.

Digits and radio pronunciation

In ICAO radiotelephony, some digits are deliberately distorted so they cannot be confused: 3 is “tree”, 4 “fower”, 5 “fife” and 9 “niner” (so it is not taken for the German “nein”). The ICAO radio option writes them that way and the Full alphabet table gives the stress of each word. In everyday phone calls, plain digits are clearer to most listeners.

French usage

In French, the international alphabet is used exactly as in English (Alfa, Bravo, Charlie…) in aviation, at sea, in the armed forces and by emergency services. The older French names (Anatole, Berthe, Célestin, Désiré…) survive only as a telephone habit. When the page is in French, the plain digits and punctuation names are given in French, while the letter code words stay the same, as they do on the radio.