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NATO Phonetic Alphabet

NATO Phonetic Alphabet

The NATO Phonetic Alphabet was developed in the 1950s by ICAO, and was adopted by NATO because it was regarded as being intelligible and pronounceable by all NATO allies in the heat of battle. It uses words which are pronounced in place of letters to distinguish what might otherwise be similar sounds from each other. It is widely used in other non-military services, such as by pilots, where an unambiguous spelling of letters needs to be conveyed verbally.

The NATO Phonetic Alphabet is given below:

Letter	Word	Guide to Pronunciation
Letter	Word	Phonetic Convention	Latin Alphabet
A	Alpha	'ælfa	AL FAH
B	Bravo	'bra:'vo	BRAH VOH
C	Charlie	'tòa:lior 'òa:li	CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE
D	Delta	'delta	DELL TAH
E	Echo	'eko	ECK OH
F	Foxtrot	'fBkstrBt	FOKS TROT
G	Golf	gulf	GOLF
H	Hotel	ho:'tel	HO TELL
I	India	'indi a	IN DEE AH
J	Juliet	'd_u:li-et	JEW LEE ETT
K	Kilo	'ki:lo	KEY LOH
L	Lima	'li:ma	LEE MAH
M	Mike	maik	MIKE
N	November	no'vembe	NO VEM BER
O	Oscar	'Bska	OSS CAH
P	Papa	pe'pa	PAH PAH
Q	Quebec	ke'bek	KEH BECK
R	Romeo	'ro:mi o	ROW ME OH
S	Sierra	si'era	SEE AIR RAH
T	Tango	't ængo	TANG GO
U	Uniform	'ju:nifB:m or 'u:nifBrm	YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM
V	Victor	'vikt a	VIK TAH
W	Whiskey	'wiski	WISS KEY
X	Xray	eks'rei	ECKS RAY
Y	Yankee	'j ænki	YANG KEY
Z	Zulu	'zu:lu:	ZOO LOO
.	Decimal or Stop
0	Zero		ZE RO
1	One		WUN
2	Two		TOO
3	Three		TREE
4	Four		FOW ER
5	Five		FIFE
6	Six		SIX
7	Seven		SEV EN
8	Eight		AIT
9	Nine		NIN ER

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