NATO phonetic alphabet translator
Spell anything as Alfa Bravo Charlie — and decode it back. Includes aviation number pronunciation and the full ICAO reference table.
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- Nothing you enter is sent
- Free, no account
Words are separated by spaces, and a slash marks a space in the original.
| Letter | Code word | Morse |
|---|---|---|
| A | Alfa | .- |
| B | Bravo | -... |
| C | Charlie | -.-. |
| D | Delta | -.. |
| E | Echo | . |
| F | Foxtrot | ..-. |
| G | Golf | --. |
| H | Hotel | .... |
| I | India | .. |
| J | Juliett | .--- |
| K | Kilo | -.- |
| L | Lima | .-.. |
| M | Mike | -- |
| N | November | -. |
| O | Oscar | --- |
| P | Papa | .--. |
| Q | Quebec | --.- |
| R | Romeo | .-. |
| S | Sierra | ... |
| T | Tango | - |
| U | Uniform | ..- |
| V | Victor | ...- |
| W | Whiskey | .-- |
| X | X-ray | -..- |
| Y | Yankee | -.-- |
| Z | Zulu | --.. |
Why a spelling alphabet exists
Over a phone line, a radio or a noisy room, whole groups of letters collapse into each other. B, C, D, E, G, P, T and V all share the same vowel sound; F and S are nearly identical once the high frequencies are gone; M and N are hopeless. Reading back a booking reference letter by letter fails constantly, and the failure is silent — both sides think they agreed.
A spelling alphabet replaces each letter with a word that cannot be confused with any other word in the set, even badly degraded. That is a stronger requirement than “starts with the right letter”, and it is why the list looks arbitrary.
Alfa, not Alpha. Juliett, not Juliet.
Two spellings in the ICAO list look like typos and are not. Alfa avoids “ph”, which speakers of many languages do not read as an F sound. Juliett carries a doubled T so that French speakers do not treat the final T as silent. Both were deliberate choices made when the alphabet was standardised in 1956, and both spellings are accepted as input here.
Aviation number pronunciation
Numbers get the same treatment in aviation and maritime use, for the same reason:
| Digit | Spoken | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Tree | The “th” sound does not survive a radio |
| 4 | Fower | Two clear syllables, unlike “for” |
| 5 | Fife | Distinguishes it from “fire” |
| 9 | Niner | Avoids collision with the German “nein” |
| . | Decimal | “Point” is easily lost |
Toggle it on in the tool to see your text spelled the way a controller would read it.
It is not the only spelling alphabet
UK and US police forces use their own lists, and they differ enough to cause confusion. Financial call centres often improvise with first names. If you are reading something critical to someone who might be using a different list, say “NATO alphabet” first — or simply read both, as in “B for Bravo”, which works regardless.
Practical uses
- Reading a reference to a call centre — booking codes, policy numbers, case IDs.
- Dictating a licence plate or postcode to emergency services or a delivery driver.
- Reading a serial number off hardware to a support engineer.
- Confirming an email address letter by letter, where a single wrong character means silence.
- Amateur radio, where it is standard practice for callsigns.
Decoding back to text
The swap button reverses the direction: paste a list of code words and get the original string. Words that are not in the ICAO alphabet come back as a question mark rather than a guess, which makes it obvious where a transcription broke down rather than hiding the problem behind a plausible letter.
Questions
Is it Alfa or Alpha, Juliett or Juliet?
Alfa and Juliett. The official ICAO spellings deliberately avoid "ph" and a silent final "t", because speakers of many languages would mispronounce them. Both spellings are accepted on input here.
Why do pilots say "niner" and "tree"?
To keep numbers distinct over noisy radio: nine can be heard as the German "nein", and three can lose its "th" entirely. Turn on aviation pronunciation to see the full set.
Is the NATO alphabet the same as the police one?
No. UK and US police forces use their own lists — Alpha Bravo Charlie overlaps, but many letters differ. When it matters, name the alphabet you are using before you start spelling.
Can I decode phonetic words back into letters?
Yes, use the swap button. Words that are not in the ICAO alphabet come back as a question mark rather than a guess, so you can see exactly where a transcription went wrong.