NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter

Type a name or a reference to get Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, or press Swap and paste code words to get the letters.

NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter

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Direction: Text to NATO words

NATO words 33 characters

Golf Alfa Tango Echo / Three Nine

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Letter for letter, from the table under the tool. A character with no entry stays exactly as you typed it, and the note under the result names it. The way back says when two letters share one code.

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How it works

This NATO phonetic alphabet converter spells what you type as code words, Alfa for A through Zulu for Z, and turns code words back into letters. The table holds 55 words: 26 letters, 10 digits as aviation says them, the 10 compound digit words ships may use, 3 number words and 6 for punctuation. It spells. It translates nothing.

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Spell a line, or read one back

Type a name or a booking reference in Your text and each letter becomes its word, with a slash where your own words break. Swap reads code words back, and it accepts the everyday Alpha, Juliet and Niner. The list under the tool gives the respellings ICAO publishes, capitals marking the stress: ho TELL, keh BECK, pah PAH.

NATO phonetic alphabet numbers, in two sets

Aviation and NATO keep the English digits and bend four: 3 is TREE, 4 is FOW-er, 5 is FIFE and 9 is NIN-er. Three can come out as sri, four sounds like for, five like fire, and nine like the German nein. Ships have a second set of compounds, such as Nadazero, Unaone and Bissotwo. This page spells digits the aviation way, and Swap reads both sets back. Either way a number is read digit by digit: 17 is One Seven.

Tips
  • Alfa and Juliett are not typos: ph is not an f sound in every language, and a French speaker may treat a single final t as silent.
  • A full stop is Stop, except between two digits, where it is Decimal: 7.5 is Seven Decimal Five.
  • Hundred and Thousand are for quantities: 1300 is One Three Zero Zero as a transponder code, One Thousand Three Hundred as an altitude.

Questions and answers

Is it really NATO's alphabet?

By nickname only. Its formal name is the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, and ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, put the final version into use on 1 March 1956. NATO's own history page says its allies led the last revision, which replaced five words, and the name stuck.

Why is it called phonetic when it is not?

Habit. A phonetic alphabet, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet, writes down speech sounds. This is a spelling alphabet: each word stands for its first letter. It cannot tell anyone how to pronounce your surname. It only gets the right letters written down.

What happens to é, ñ or ß?

This page takes the accent off and spells the base letter, so é goes out as Echo. The note under the result says so. A character with no plain base, such as ß, stays as typed. There are 26 letter words and no more. German and several other languages keep spelling alphabets of their own.

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All 55 code words

Letters, Alfa to Zulu 26

  • Alfa Stands for A. Said AL fah. Spelled with an f because ph is not read as f in every language.
  • Bravo Stands for B. Said BRAH voh. Bravo Zulu, the letters BZ, is the naval signal for well done.
  • Charlie Stands for C. Said CHAR lee. ICAO also allows SHAR lee. Replaced Coca, the word in the 1951 version.
  • Delta Stands for D. Said DELL tah.
  • Echo Stands for E. Said ECK oh.
  • Foxtrot Stands for F. Said FOKS trot. Wikipedia records that airports in the United States may shorten it to Fox.
  • Golf Stands for G. Said golf. One syllable, no stress to mark.
  • Hotel Stands for H. Said ho TELL. The stress is on the second syllable.
  • India Stands for I. Said IN dee ah. Three syllables.
  • Juliett Stands for J. Said JEW lee ETT. The second t is there so that a French speaker does not leave the ending silent.
  • Kilo Stands for K. Said KEY loh.
  • Lima Stands for L. Said LEE mah. Said like the city, not like the bean.
  • Mike Stands for M. Said mike. One syllable. Replaced Metro, the word in the 1951 version.
Show all 55 code words (42 more)

Letters, Alfa to Zulu, continued

  • November Stands for N. Said no VEM ber. Replaced Nectar, which was confused with Victor, in 1956.
  • Oscar Stands for O. Said OSS cah. The respelling has no r: ICAO treats a non-rhotic pronunciation as standard.
  • Papa Stands for P. Said pah PAH. The stress is on the second syllable.
  • Quebec Stands for Q. Said keh BECK. No w sound.
  • Romeo Stands for R. Said ROW me oh.
  • Sierra Stands for S. Said see AIR rah.
  • Tango Stands for T. Said TANG go.
  • Uniform Stands for U. Said YOU nee form. ICAO also allows OO nee form. Replaced Union, the word in the 1951 version.
  • Victor Stands for V. Said VIK tah.
  • Whiskey Stands for W. Said WISS key.
  • X-ray Stands for X. Said ECKS ray. ICAO writes X-ray and NATO writes Xray, so that it is read as one word. Replaced Extra, which was confused with Delta.
  • Yankee Stands for Y. Said YANG key.
  • Zulu Stands for Z. Said ZOO loo. Zulu time is the radio name for UTC.

Digits as aviation and NATO say them 10

  • Eight Stands for 8. Said AIT.
  • Five Stands for 5. Said FIFE. With a v it is easily confused with fire.
  • Four Stands for 4. Said FOW-er. Rhymes with lower, which keeps it apart from the word for.
  • Nine Stands for 9. Said NIN-er. The extra syllable keeps it apart from the German word nein, which means no.
  • One Stands for 1. Said WUN.
  • Seven Stands for 7. Said SEV-en.
  • Six Stands for 6. Said SIX.
  • Three Stands for 3. Said TREE. Said without the th so that it is not mispronounced sri.
  • Two Stands for 2. Said TOO.
  • Zero Stands for 0. Said ZE-RO. ICAO asks for equal stress on both syllables.

Digits at sea (ITU and IMO) 10

  • Bissotwo Stands for 2 at sea. Said BEES-SOH-TOO, every syllable stressed alike. Wikipedia traces the prefix to Latin bis; the rest is the English two.
  • Kartefour Stands for 4 at sea. Said KAR-TAY-FOWER, every syllable stressed alike. Wikipedia traces the prefix to French quatre; the rest is the English four.
  • Nadazero Stands for 0 at sea. Said NAH-DAH-ZAY-ROH, every syllable stressed alike. Wikipedia traces the prefix to Spanish or Portuguese nada; the rest is the English zero.
  • Novenine Stands for 9 at sea. Said NO-VAY-NINER, every syllable stressed alike. Wikipedia traces the prefix to Italian nove; the rest is the English nine.
  • Oktoeight Stands for 8 at sea. Said OK-TOH-AIT, every syllable stressed alike. Wikipedia traces the prefix to Latin octo; the rest is the English eight.
  • Pantafive Stands for 5 at sea. Said PAN-TAH-FIVE, every syllable stressed alike. Wikipedia traces the prefix to Greek penta; the rest is the English five.
  • Setteseven Stands for 7 at sea. Said SAY-TAY-SEVEN, every syllable stressed alike. Wikipedia traces the prefix to Italian sette; the rest is the English seven.
  • Soxisix Stands for 6 at sea. Said SOK-SEE-SIX, every syllable stressed alike. Wikipedia traces the prefix to French soix; the rest is the English six.
  • Terrathree Stands for 3 at sea. Said TAY-RAH-TREE, every syllable stressed alike. Wikipedia traces the prefix to Italian terzo; the rest is the English three.
  • Unaone Stands for 1 at sea. Said OO-NAH-WUN, every syllable stressed alike. Wikipedia traces the prefix to Latin una; the rest is the English one.

Decimal, hundred and thousand 3

  • Decimal The point inside a number. Said DAY-SEE-MAL, every syllable stressed alike, so 7.5 is Seven Decimal Five. The FAA says point.
  • Hundred Said HUN-dred. For whole hundreds only, when 00 ends a number that is a quantity: a code or serial number is still read digit by digit.
  • Thousand Said TOU-SAND, without the th, for the same reason as TREE. Used as in English, for quantities and not for codes.

Punctuation (military list) 6

  • Brackets off A closing bracket. Written for ")".
  • Brackets on An opening bracket. Written for "(".
  • Comma A comma that is not a decimal comma. Written for ",".
  • Hyphen The FAA says dash. Written for "-".
  • Slant The forward slash. This page marks your own word breaks with a slash too, so a typed one is always written out as Slant. Written for "/".
  • Stop A full stop that is not a decimal point.

How this list was compiled: All 55 code words and every respelling were read from the Wikipedia article NATO phonetic alphabet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet) on 2026-09-19 by a script that stops if a word or a respelling is not in the article as typed here. The article takes the 26 letter words, the 10 digit words and their English respellings (capitals mark a stressed syllable) from ICAO Annex 10, Volume II, section 5.2; the 10 compound digit words from the ITU Radio Regulations and the IMO International Code of Signals; and the 6 punctuation words from the Combined Communications-Electronics Board publication ACP 125(G). The list of 26 was checked a second time against NATO's own history page, The NATO phonetic alphabet (https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_136216.htm), read the same day, which also gives the five words the 1956 version replaced (Coca, Metro, Nectar, Union, Extra). Spellings are ICAO's: Alfa, Juliett and X-ray. The variants a listener may say or type (Alpha, Juliet, Xray, Whisky, Niner and the like) are kept only so the decoder accepts them. In: every code word those bodies publish for a letter, a digit, a number or a punctuation mark. Left out: national and police variants, earlier alphabets such as Able Baker, and the procedure words of radio (over, roger, wilco), which are not a spelling alphabet. Licence: own work