How do you spell that? Try the NATO alphabet

Von A wie Alfa bis Z wie Zulu. Das internationale Buchstabieralphabet hilft nicht nur in der Luftfahrt, Missverständnisse zu vermeiden.

Have you ever been asked to spell your name on the phone? Have you ever had to do it in English? Sometimes, for clear communication, we have to spell out words. As the pronunciation of many letters of the alphabet sounds similar, we can use spelling alphabets to help us.

The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, better known as the NATO alphabet, is the one that’s most commonly used to spell out the letters of the Roman alphabet. It was officially adopted by NATO and by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 1956. Globally, it’s used in the aviation industry to avoid confusion in the air, but it also makes communication with customer service much easier.

Words for letters

Before that, in 1941, the US military started using the spelling alphabet known as the Able Baker alphabet. Britain’s Royal Air Force began using it two years later:

Able - Baker - Charlie - Dog - Easy - Fox - George - How - Item - Jig - King - Love - Mike - Nan - Oboe - Peter Queen - Roger - Sugar - Tare - Uncle - Victor - William - X-ray - Yoke - Zebra

This version had some problems and was not practical. What does “tare” mean? Are “item”, “jig” or “yoke” easy to understand under adverse conditions? The change to the NATO alphabet was understandable.

Before there was Able Baker, in the 1920s, the International Telecommunication Union produced the first internationally accepted spelling alphabet, which — for the most part — used place names. One common criticism of this and of the Able Baker alphabet was that they were very English in composition. The NATO alphabet is more neutral and can be used around the world, in almost any situation in any industry.