Please use this and don't make up your own shit on the fly. It's very understandable both as a rep and a customer.
In a phone conversation with a vendor they interrupted me while spelling to say something like "oh thank God you're using the normal one and not shit like 'frankfurter' "
O as in opossum, p as in pnumonia, c as in Chicago.
K as in knight
this is an alphabet but the whole idea of the phonetic alphabet is to make communication more efficient, and I don't think this achieves that.
"No, I said P! P for pterodactyl!"
Edit: Though, that said, the point of the phonetic alphabet is they are very distinguishable words that sound nothing like one another. Even making out just "-a-a" you know it was papa, P. So as long as you know how to spell pterodactyl...
The NATO phonetic alphabet is incredibly useful, though it does suffer from some issues in similar sounds. During a recent high frequency (HF) worldwide competition (IARU-HF), weak-signal SSB stations sometimes had to spend a few minutes trying to complete a radio exchange because of similar sounding phonetic endings: “Was that whiskey one bravo alpha?”
“Negative, whiskey one tango alpha—TANGO alpha, over”
This happens so commonly, that many HF operators substitute other words in the same manner to enhance understanding: common ones are kilowatt, sugar, Germany, America, London, etc.
Whiskey tango foxtrot.
I was so close to editing my comment to be “whiskey one tango foxtrot” and now I regret not doing it lol
kilowatt, sugar, Germany, America, London
They're great substitutes. I always found Quebec to be the most distinguishable because of geographic reference.
Golf to Germany makes sense as Golf it's single syllable with yet another hard type O in it. Unlike Mike which could be missed, but the I and K crack/pop are strong sounds.
Kilowatt is interesting since the 'watt' is a backup sound if kilo is distorted. Honestly, Kardashian would be a good one as much as it pains me to say it.
Not sure about why people are surprised by this alphabet. It’s been in use for quite some time in its current form. I work in aviation and we always use this for radio communications. Obviously the military does too.
I personally hate it when I say the nato alphabet equivallent and somebody just gets confused. Like "what do you mean alpha, is that what I need to type?". Or worse yet, they start using names and end up with the joke from Archer - "M as in Mancy" or other nondescript names for letters.
My personal favorite I overheard was "N as in pneumonic"
I like throwing these in on purpose, p as in pterodactyl often gets a chuckle.
For the layperson you have to do the "[letter] as in [phonetic alphabet equivalent]" format. Most people will understandably get confused if they ask how to spell your name and you tell them "Alpha-November-Delta-Yankee". If they're not used to it or never heard it it'll sound like you just started having a stroke.
I can't remember this guide but I remember the Android Phonetic Alphabet
- Alpha
- Beta
- Cupcake
- Donut
- Eclair
- Froyo
- Gingerbread
- Honeycomb
- Ice Cream
- Jelly Bean
- KitKat
- Lollipop
- Marshmallow
- Nougat
- Oreo
- Pie
- Quiche
- Red Velvet
- Sugar Cookie
- Tiramisu
- Upside Down Cake
- Vanilla
- Waffle
There are no other letters
Pretty sure it's Ice Cream Sandwich for I.
Fuck me if someone tells me over the phone:
Cupcake, Upside down cake, Marshmallow
When I was a kid, I was in a clan for Battlefield Vietnam that took itself waaaaay too seriously, had a good number of JROTC kids that insisted we all needed to know this, the NATO phonetic alphabet.
We were using teamspeak, had a session where the group leader stood us all in a line, and one by one wanted us to sound it off.
Guy 1: Alpha!
Guy 2 (me): Bravo!
Guy 3: Catholic!
Group Lead: sighs
shoots Guy 3 in the face
When I worked IT helpdesk I created my own one of these. Others photocopied it, they were photocopied. Years later I dropped in and saw one of the new staff with my phonetic alphabet stuck to the side of his screen. (I think they were also still using my mainframe login ID)
It is 100% more fun to make them up yourself though
This alphabet was carefully designed to minimize the chance of confusion. I'd rather be accurate than fun.
... I don't get invited to many parties.
This is all fun and games until someone says "M as in Mancy"
A as in Aye
E as in Ewe
S as in Sea
W as in Why
Egg
🥚 🏳️⚧️
My favorite is asking a call Rep if I can switch to phonetic, and then rattling off the spellings when given the go ahead.
The only reason I have it drilled into my head is because the warehouse I work at uses voice for confirming locations.
I have no idea what it is with the letter "I" that throws me off. I've been using this alphabet since I joined the military ~15 years ago, and for some reason "I" still turns into "Igloo", "Indigo" or "Israel" most of the time. It's just that one singular letter that I can never remember!
Average Canadian: "Oh yeah, I got this one easy bud!"
Alright, for your final test: how do you spell Quebec?
AC: "Oh, for sure, that one there is easy! It's, uh... Q, for... uh..."
...
AC: "Q... for... Kay-beck..."
I memorized it on my commute to work. I taped it to my dash and practiced on the license plates of the cars on the highway. I took it off my dash once I could read street signs out loud before passing them.
Instructions unclear, stuck under the twisted metal of my vehicle. Send paramedics.
When I first started working at a callcenter, I quickly went "oh I need to learn a phonetic alphabet" and printed and posted the NATO alphabet at my desk
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