NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter

About NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter

This converter spells out text with the NATO phonetic alphabet. Type a name, a booking reference or a postcode and every letter and digit is turned into its code word, so HI becomes Hotel India. It is built for the moment on a phone call or radio when someone has to be sure that B is not D and M is not N.

The code words are chosen to be hard to mishear. The official spellings are Alfa and Juliett, but many people say Alpha and Juliet, so there is an option for the familiar ones. Digits are written as English words, from Zero to Nine, and characters with no code word, such as full stops, hyphens and accented letters, are kept as they are so you can say them in your own words.

You can separate words with a slash or put each on its own line, which makes a long reference easier to read out one word at a time. The tool also works in reverse. Switch to code words to text, paste the words with a slash between each original word, and the letters are rebuilt. Alpha, Juliet, Xray and Niner are accepted when decoding, and any word it does not know is shown as a question mark.

How to use NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter

1. Type or paste your text.
2. Choose whether words are separated by a slash or by new lines, and whether to use Alpha and Juliet.
3. Read out the code words, one letter at a time.
4. To go the other way, switch to code words to text and paste the code words.

Common uses

• Spelling a surname, street name or email address over the phone
• Reading out a booking reference, serial number or licence plate without confusion
• Learning the phonetic alphabet by typing words and reading the code back
• Preparing a script for a call centre or helpdesk where details are often read aloud
• Checking the code words for a callsign or a short identifier
• Decoding a message that has been spelled out in code words