Phonetic Alphabet

Alpha-Oscar-Sierra-Tango. We've all heard people use words that don't seem to make a sentence, but that people seem to get something out of them. What is the point of these?

First of all, let me explain what it is. These words represent letters. Specifically, they represent the letter of the first word in the alphabet. This allows for transmission of letters that need to be exact, even if the channel is noisy. The classic example is B and D. If you just say the name of the letter, they can often be confused. If you want to make sure you get it right, you should say Bravo and Delta.



In theory, you could use any arbitrary word to make such a distinction. However, there are a few advantages to using the standard. First of all, people will instantly recognize it as a phonetic spelling. The words chosen aren't extremely common in normal language. Secondly, they are chosen to sound differently themselves. It wouldn't do, for instance, to use bad and dad for b and d, they could easily be confused. Lastly, even if you are short a sylable, you can often figure out what the rest was, if you are using the standard.

Here is a copy of the international standard for the phonetic alphabet. You should at least learn your call sign, and it wouldn't hurt to know more than that.This chart copied from Phonetic Alphabet Tables.

Letter	phonetic letter
A	Alpha
B	Bravo
C	Charlie
D	Delta
E	Echo
F	Foxtrot
G	Golf
H	Hotel
I	India
J	Juliet
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