NATO Phonetic Alphabet Translator
Type a name, a call sign or a booking code to spell it the way pilots, soldiers and radio operators do. Each letter shows its code word, how to say it and its Morse code. Paste code words to get the letters back.
The NATO phonetic alphabet, with Morse code
Pronunciation is the ICAO respelling: the syllable in capitals is stressed. Tap a code word to hear it and its Morse.
What the phonetic alphabet is for
On a noisy radio or phone line, B, D, P and V sound alike. A code word for each letter removes the doubt: "Bravo" cannot be mistaken for "Delta". The same 26 words are used in aviation, at sea, by the military and by radio amateurs, which is why the alphabet goes by several names: NATO, ICAO, ITU or international radiotelephony spelling alphabet.
Why Alfa and Juliett are spelled that way
Alfa is written with an f and Juliett with two t's on purpose. Speakers of some languages might not read ph as f, and French speakers might treat a single final t as silent. The official spellings make both words sound the same to everyone.
Numbers
Digits are said as in English with a few changes that carry better over radio: three is "tree", four "fower", five "fife" and nine "niner". The table above gives the ICAO respelling for each.
Phonetic alphabet and Morse code
They do the same job on different channels. The code words spell letters by voice; Morse spells them by tone or light. Radio operators use both: on CW (Morse) a call sign is sent as code, and on voice it is spelled with code words. Every card above shows both, so you can learn them together.
History and source
The alphabet was developed in the early 1950s and put into use by the International Civil Aviation Organization on 1 March 1956, replacing earlier alphabets such as Able, Baker. Code words and respellings on this page are the ICAO ones, as tabulated in the English Wikipedia article NATO phonetic alphabet.
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