The Phonetic (phonic | fonic) alphabet as used by the police and military.
How often have you read a number or reference, even your own postcode to someone over the phone and found they STILL got it wrong! - Well that's why the phonetic alphabet was invented - to help get references right first time!
Call signs are used everyday by public services like the police and fire fighters but they're also useful to us too! - Using the following table you can ensure your message is understood first time and recorded exactly.
Here we present the IPA - the International Phonetic Alphabet which was developed (apparently) by NATO for use with international military sevices. It's now so widley used and recognised even the police use it. We can use it too, simply to make life easier.
Letter | Word | Pronunciation |
A | ALPHA | AL fah |
B | BRAVO | BRAH voh |
C | CHARLIE | CHAR lee |
D | DELTA | DELL tah |
E | ECHO | ECk oh |
F | FOXTROT | FOKS trot |
G | GOLF | GOLF |
H | HOTEL | HOH tell |
I | INDIA | IN dee AH |
J | JULIETT | JEW lee ETT |
K | KILO | KEY loh |
L | LIMA | LEE mah |
M | MIKE | MIKE |
N | NOVEMBER | NO vem BER |
O | OSCAR | OSS car |
P | PAPA | PAH pah |
Q | QUEBEC | KWEE beck |
R | ROMEO | ROW me OH |
S | SIERRA | SEE air RAH |
T | TANGO | TANG go |
U | UNIFORM | YOU nee FORM |
V | VICTOR | VIK tah |
W | WHISKEY | WISS kee |
Y | YANKEY | YANG kee |
Z | ZULU | ZOO loo |
Number | Spelling | Pronunciation |
1 | One | WUN |
2 | Two | Too |
3 | Three | THUH ree |
4 | Four | FO wer |
5 | Five | FI yiv |
6 | Six | SIX |
7 | Seven | SEV EN |
8 | Eight | AIT |
9 | Nine | NINER |
0 | Zero | ZERO |