A Cool Guide: After I said “E as in egg” to customer service I looked up this guide
A Cool Guide: After I said “E as in egg” to customer service I looked up this guide
Please use this and don't make up your own shit on the fly. It's very understandable both as a rep and a customer.
In a phone conversation with a vendor they interrupted me while spelling to say something like "oh thank God you're using the normal one and not shit like 'frankfurter' "
O as in opossum, p as in pnumonia, c as in Chicago.
K as in knight
When both ends of a conversation are comfortable using the phonetic alphabet, you can easily hit 2+ characters per second, accurately.
this is an alphabet but the whole idea of the phonetic alphabet is to make communication more efficient, and I don't think this achieves that.
/s
X dd...
Depends on with whom you're talking with
Beautiful, though they didn't really describe dd well
"No, I said P! P for pterodactyl!"
Edit: Though, that said, the point of the phonetic alphabet is they are very distinguishable words that sound nothing like one another. Even making out just "-a-a" you know it was papa, P. So as long as you know how to spell pterodactyl...
The NATO phonetic alphabet is incredibly useful, though it does suffer from some issues in similar sounds. During a recent high frequency (HF) worldwide competition (IARU-HF), weak-signal SSB stations sometimes had to spend a few minutes trying to complete a radio exchange because of similar sounding phonetic endings: “Was that whiskey one bravo alpha?”
“Negative, whiskey one tango alpha—TANGO alpha, over”
This happens so commonly, that many HF operators substitute other words in the same manner to enhance understanding: common ones are kilowatt, sugar, Germany, America, London, etc.
kilowatt, sugar, Germany, America, London
They're great substitutes. I always found Quebec to be the most distinguishable because of geographic reference.
Golf to Germany makes sense as Golf it's single syllable with yet another hard type O in it. Unlike Mike which could be missed, but the I and K crack/pop are strong sounds.
Kilowatt is interesting since the 'watt' is a backup sound if kilo is distorted. Honestly, Kardashian would be a good one as much as it pains me to say it.
Someone made a whole book out of this jokeOmg, I need to waste my money on this.
The clip of Kitboga still cracks me up where the scammer gets angry for him using "J as in Jalapeño" 😂
Not sure about why people are surprised by this alphabet. It’s been in use for quite some time in its current form. I work in aviation and we always use this for radio communications. Obviously the military does too.
I personally hate it when I say the nato alphabet equivallent and somebody just gets confused. Like "what do you mean alpha, is that what I need to type?". Or worse yet, they start using names and end up with the joke from Archer - "M as in Mancy" or other nondescript names for letters.
For the layperson you have to do the "[letter] as in [phonetic alphabet equivalent]" format. Most people will understandably get confused if they ask how to spell your name and you tell them "Alpha-November-Delta-Yankee". If they're not used to it or never heard it it'll sound like you just started having a stroke.
Tbf most people never have reason to use it so they don’t know it. Or they just think the words are random after watching a cop drama or comedy where a word is spelled out over a radio. Also there seems to be an independent police phonetic called then “LAPD” alphabet, but I can’t tell if it’s intended to be serious or just mostly lifted from movies and tv.
🎵Foxtrot... Uniform... Charlie... Kilo....! 🎶
(Bloodhound Gang song)
Put the you know what, in the you know where.
“M, as in Mancy!”
I can't remember this guide but I remember the Android Phonetic Alphabet
- Alpha
- Beta
- Cupcake
- Donut
- Eclair
- Froyo
- Gingerbread
- Honeycomb
- Ice Cream
- Jelly Bean
- KitKat
- Lollipop
- Marshmallow
- Nougat
- Oreo
- Pie
- Quiche
- Red Velvet
- Sugar Cookie
- Tiramisu
- Upside Down Cake
- Vanilla
- Waffle
There are no other letters
Pretty sure it's Ice Cream Sandwich for I.
Fuck me if someone tells me over the phone:
Cupcake, Upside down cake, Marshmallow
Quiche doesn't really work, but otherwise it's not bad.
When I was a kid, I was in a clan for Battlefield Vietnam that took itself waaaaay too seriously, had a good number of JROTC kids that insisted we all needed to know this, the NATO phonetic alphabet.
We were using teamspeak, had a session where the group leader stood us all in a line, and one by one wanted us to sound it off.
Guy 1: Alpha!
Guy 2 (me): Bravo!
Guy 3: Catholic!
Group Lead: sighs
shoots Guy 3 in the face
It is 100% more fun to make them up yourself though
This alphabet was carefully designed to minimize the chance of confusion. I'd rather be accurate than fun.
... I don't get invited to many parties.
In my experience I always have issues with "S as in Sierra" because most people don't know what the hell Sierra is. Because they are uncultured heathens.
M as in Mama though, I always use that one.
This is all fun and games until someone says "M as in Mancy"
A as in Aye
E as in Ewe
S as in Sea
W as in Why
100% agree. I often have fun with customer service or whatever coming up with fun words.
There is a fun one based on the periodic table.
It includes things like P as in Lead and A as in Gold
Egg
🥚 🏳️⚧️
When I worked IT helpdesk I created my own one of these. Others photocopied it, they were photocopied. Years later I dropped in and saw one of the new staff with my phonetic alphabet stuck to the side of his screen. (I think they were also still using my mainframe login ID)
I had a similar thing happen to me. People saw mine, and pretty soon 5-10% of the office had one.
My favorite is asking a call Rep if I can switch to phonetic, and then rattling off the spellings when given the go ahead.
The only reason I have it drilled into my head is because the warehouse I work at uses voice for confirming locations.
I have no idea what it is with the letter "I" that throws me off. I've been using this alphabet since I joined the military ~15 years ago, and for some reason "I" still turns into "Igloo", "Indigo" or "Israel" most of the time. It's just that one singular letter that I can never remember!
For me it’s Quebec and Kilo, even after more than 15 years in aviation.
Like for spelling my handle here, my first reflex is to say Sierra Quebec uniform…Uuuh no, Sierra Kilo Uniform November Kilo.
Ah, Kebek! Make sure to try the pooteen!
Glad to know it's not just me! Kilo and Quebec makes sense, given that both start with that hard K sound and theyre both words associated with the NATO alphabet. I could easily see struggling with that one too if not for the Bloodhound Gang teaching me "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo" early on in my youth.
Pretty sure “Indigo” was used in either a previous version or another phonetic alphabet. NATO’s isn’t the only one. I think some police forces still use “Abel, Baker…”
Average Canadian: "Oh yeah, I got this one easy bud!"
Alright, for your final test: how do you spell Quebec?
AC: "Oh, for sure, that one there is easy! It's, uh... Q, for... uh..."
...
AC: "Q... for... Kay-beck..."
Great fishin' in Kew-beck
C'est facile non?
When I first started working at a callcenter, I quickly went "oh I need to learn a phonetic alphabet" and printed and posted the NATO alphabet at my desk
I memorized it on my commute to work. I taped it to my dash and practiced on the license plates of the cars on the highway. I took it off my dash once I could read street signs out loud before passing them.
Instructions unclear, stuck under the twisted metal of my vehicle. Send paramedics.
All the cool kids learned it from the bloodhound gang.
Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo.
E for egg isn't even consistent throughout the English-speaking world. That vowel might be quite different in something like South African or Kiwi English compared to other dialects.
Aigs?
Iggs!
Oh, eyren!
It's not even consistent within the US. I've known people who, if they said that sentence over the phone it would sound a lot like "E as in A"
X is X-ray??
And F is Foxtrot but not just Fox??
Am I the only that thinks this is crazy?
It was designed like that for a reason. There's a lack of one syllable words there, and the ones that are there sound very different. It's also used for messages that require precision that the average person doesn't need in day to day life.
"Fox" could be confused with "box", so it goes with "Foxtrot".
Also, keep in mind that everything is a product of its time.
Fox could also be misheard in other languages, not just box.
The old joke about telling your German counterpart about nine tanks coming over the hill and all that.
Not really, but it makes sense to me.
I learned the phonetic alphabet partly because of the fact that I obtained my amateur radio operator qualification. I'm a "ham" radio person.
Hearing these on the radio, which isn't super clear to begin with in most cases, it's much easier to use this way and almost trivial to understand others when they spell anything over the radio. Given this is the NATO alphabet, it's used by all kinds of people, from ham operators like me, to government/military. Often in conjunction with some kind of communications system, often but not always radio communications, where the signal might be poor.
I think the original intent was to ensure that all letters sounded as unique as possible, so even if you only catch part of the word (maybe the rest is obfuscated by static), you still understand the what was said.
I prefer x as in xylophone myself
Anal Colon Anal Butthole
The only one I don't like is Z is for Zulu. I've never heard of that word before and it could easily be mistaken for Hulu. Z should be changed to Zebra.
Zebra is much closer to Sierra and Papa, than Zulu is to any other word in that list - they are specifically chosen to be distinctly understandable in difficult-to-hear situations. And should they change it every time a new brand gets popular that's kinda similar to one of the words?
Zebra is written with S in some languages, so it would potentially cause trouble.
And some say zee brah and some say zeb brah
I was in the Army for 6 years, yet whenever I try to think of the letter M my brain just short circuits to "Movember".
M as in mancy
Lima balls…
there are other versions that would be more suitable to the public….
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.
Adam, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Edward, Frank, George, Henry, Ida, John, King, Lincoln, Mary, New York, Ocean, Peter, Queen, Roger, Sugar, Thomas, Union, Victor, William, X-Ray, Young, Zero.
….
any common words will wordI feel like "N as in Nan" could easily sound like "M as in Man."
Yeah, use clearly distinct words, like "M as in Mancy".
Pan, ran, san, ban, can, tan, lan, flan, clan, gran, Dan, fan, van, Jan, there's probably more...
they’re old timey examples… just the first ones i googled
the 2nd list isn't great.. Chicago and Sugar? N is two words, Mary and Henry are similar.. I think part of the NATO one is you'd be able to tell even if you miss part of the word.
Also that the words are accurately pronounceable with a heavy accent. I think there's an international version that considers more languages here, particularly south-east asian.
As a non-native speaker I'd have no idea how to pronounce or spell Jig, Oboe, Tare or Yoke
Which is exactly why the NATO alphabet is the way it is. NATO is an international organization, and the alphabet is suitable for that.
