The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) assigned code words acrophonically to the English alphabet. This was done so that letters would be easy to understand for those communicating by way of radio or telephone, whatever their language or quality of communication. You can read more about it’s fascinating evolution and history at Wikipedia.
#1 It’s pretty cool.
The war comedy Whiskey Tango Foxtrot starring Tina Fey relies on your NATO phonetic alphabet skills in order to get the inside joke. Plus it’s one of those things that will come up in conversation and impress everyone when you can rattle it off verbatim.
#2 It actually works!
When you’re struggling to understand the person on the other end of the line or vice-versa, try using the NATO phonetic alphabet. Spelling your name to someone in a busy call centre, it should definitely speed things up and makes a massive improvement on the A for apple, B for banana system.
#3 You can use it with Dragon.
If having the alphabet at your disposal for broken telephone conversations or looking like you could’ve been in Top Gun isn’t enough… you can put it to use with your PC. Dragon struggles to recognise shorter, less distinct sound waves. This is why adding a bit more information to each alphabet letter helps it understand you. B, C, D, E and G all look similar but saying Beta, Charlie, Delta, Echo and Gamma gives the system a better chance of recognising these letters when spelling.
Open the spell window and try dictating the NATO phonetic alphabet to see how it works. Or, say “Spell” and immediately start dictating letters within a document.
The 26 code words in the spelling alphabet are assigned to the 26 letters of the English alphabet in alphabetical order as follows: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.
The NATO Phonetic Alphabet
A Alfa/Alpha
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