How to use the translator
- Type a name, a code or a message in the text box. The code words appear as you type, one per letter, with a slash between words.
- Tick Radio digits to write 3, 4, 5 and 9 the way radio operators say them.
- Press Copy to paste the code words into an email, a script or a note.
- To read code words, press the arrows between the two labels and paste them. Spaces, commas or hyphens between code words all work, and a slash or a double space starts a new word.
Letters with accents use their plain letter. Punctuation has no code word, so it stays as it is.
The NATO phonetic alphabet
Each letter has one code word, chosen to sound different from all the others even over a noisy line. Tap a code word to copy it.
Numbers in the NATO alphabet
Digits are said as ordinary numbers, except four of them that radio procedure changes to avoid mix-ups. Tap a digit word to copy it.
When people use it
- Spelling over the phone: names, email addresses, booking references and serial numbers, where B and D or M and N are easy to confuse.
- Aviation: aircraft call signs such as N123AB are read as November One Two Tree Alfa Bravo.
- Military and police radio: call signs and grid references.
- Learning and games: memorizing the alphabet, or writing a message only your friends can read aloud.
A little history
Several spelling alphabets came before this one, including the Able Baker alphabet used by the U.S. military in the Second World War. The new word list was chosen to work for speakers of many languages, not only English, and the International Civil Aviation Organization put it into use in 1956. NATO adopted it the same year, which is why most people know it as the NATO alphabet.
For another way to spell letters out, try the Morse code translator.