Lol - "Q as in Queue" hahahaha I bet someone thinks this is official enough to use.
I hope someone uses this, religiously, for life. :)
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
Xray
Yankee
Zulu
After having to learn these for work years ago, my life got a lot easier. Bad phone call? Phonetics, precise radio comms.? Phonetics. Just works, should be taught in every school.
I find myself on the phone trying to spell something and come up with words that begin with each letter. Agreed that it’s a solved problem and everyone should just learn it.
I taught myself by playing a license plate game, referring to the cars around me by their phonetic license plates "what're you doing bravo whiskey foxtrot foxtrot? You're turning right but indicating left!" It makes road rage more fun.
C is especially bad because Cue pronounced the same as Queue (if my English isn't too bad). The others are at least consisted once you accepted the absurdity. Also you forgot S and E in your list
I used to work for phone support. First day when I thought I can use the alphabet like pro, then granny and auntie callers complained they don't know that military shit.
I have always pronounced Quebec like "kebek." Many US callers didn't understand it until it's like "cuebek". So I started pronouncing like so. Many US callers didn't understand it until it's "kebek".
The idea isn't that the characters are new, it's that the names are more widespread than something like the Foxtrot dance, which many people alive today have never heard of.
Most of them do, yeah. You may hear a bit of a “tongue click” or something with others first before the “s”. A lot of first-language English speakers seem to really struggle when they see two consonants together that they haven’t previously encountered.
It should be a "hard ts" which is something we mostly picked up from the French that is also a sound used in Japanese. So there should be a difference between saying "tsu" and saying "sue."
Tsu should be pronounced with teeth together and pushing air out through the teeth first, tongue against the lower front teeth for the hissy-t sound, before the vowel. (it's hard to write how to pronounce a word)
Counterpoint: isle starts with the expected I sound so it’s 50/50 odds of getting I correct with aisle/isle. E being Eye and I being Ian (Ee-an) is actually more disruptive.
Bidet is puzzling enough. Then there's modern portmanteaus like bussy (really, any word that has a more well-known P-word, like blot, will work) and NATO PA soundalikes like bike. And words with stress on other syllables that make the B less distinct, especially evil ones are before and benign for sounding like B4 and B9.
Too bad all the (common) silent b words are words with b in the middle, not at the beginning. Bdellium would work, but that's something I think 99.9% of the planet has never heard of. If that were allowed, I bet you could find extremely rare names for every other letter.
Nine is evil because it's a valid character. When you are using a phonetic alphabet, you don't say "N as in Nine". The whole point is to speed up communication over crappy connections. Adding "as in" afterwards defeats the purpose of having a standard.
But to indulge your more serious angle, yeah, it's well thought through. And if your source is the one I think it is, that one also packages in that "NATO Phonetic Alphabet" is a bit of a misnomer.
It's not a phonetic alphabet, since it doesn't type out what sounds one must make to pronounce words correctly. And the main devs weren't NATO, but ICAO. NATO was just gonna adopt it and issue some feedback for improvements.
P is for Pterodactyl.
There is a children's book with that title that my kids liked when they were small. Thanks for the memory prompt!
I own the book.
What are you doing with that person's kid's book?
Probably reading it
Wringing their hands, cackling, tying up schoolmarms on railroad tracks while twiddling mustaches
The unbelievable antics of the fucking literate. Thoz eevul ashowls.
Nice, can I borrow it? Sounds like a good read
I own you
From the book:
A is for Aisle
B is for Bdellium
C is for Czar
D is for Djibouti
E is for Ewe
F is not for Photo, phlegm, phooey, or phone
G is for Gnocchi
H is for Heir
I is not for Eye
J is for Jai Alai
K is for Knight
L is not for Elle
M is Mnemonic
N is not for Knot
O is for Ouija
P is for Pterodactyl
Q is for Quinoa
R is not for Are
S is for Seas
T is for Tsunami
U is not for You
V is for Five
W is Wren
X is for Xylophone
Y is not for Why
Z is for Zhivago
I'm confused why ten is substituted with a musical instrument
¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ That's what the book uses for J
Or for psychology
I was getting angry reading this.
Calm down, Mancy.
We’re still doing “phrasing”!
I started off nonplussed but by the time I got to the end I was mildly amused.
Upvoted for proper usage of nonplussed!
Same, then I looked to see where this was posted and was able to enjoy it.
You, I see mnemonic aisle 9
Lol - "Q as in Queue" hahahaha I bet someone thinks this is official enough to use.
I hope someone uses this, religiously, for life. :)
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
Xray
Yankee
Zulu
After having to learn these for work years ago, my life got a lot easier. Bad phone call? Phonetics, precise radio comms.? Phonetics. Just works, should be taught in every school.
I find myself on the phone trying to spell something and come up with words that begin with each letter. Agreed that it’s a solved problem and everyone should just learn it.
I taught myself by playing a license plate game, referring to the cars around me by their phonetic license plates "what're you doing bravo whiskey foxtrot foxtrot? You're turning right but indicating left!" It makes road rage more fun.
The made up shit is so much more fun tho
Its cute that romeo and juliet live forever in the phonetic alphabet like this
It sure is!
If Q as in Queue bothers you, you better check what C stands for.
Same for D. And Y. And W.
C is especially bad because Cue pronounced the same as Queue (if my English isn't too bad). The others are at least consisted once you accepted the absurdity. Also you forgot S and E in your list
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet
The spelling is actually also important for non-english speakers.
Alpha is hard to pronounce if you aren't familiar with English ph, so it should be an F.
Juliet should have two T's to ensure romance language speakers pronounce the T.
I used to work for phone support. First day when I thought I can use the alphabet like pro, then granny and auntie callers complained they don't know that military shit.
I have always pronounced Quebec like "kebek." Many US callers didn't understand it until it's like "cuebek". So I started pronouncing like so. Many US callers didn't understand it until it's "kebek".
Fuck this shit.
Big outs to The Bloodhound Gang
Many of these are two distinct syllables, so even if you get a broken transmission, it’s still intelligible.
m as in mancy n as in bike.
I was on a call earlier with a business and they said S as in Sam. I wanted to correct them, but I thought it wasn't worth it.
As someone who had to learn the actual NATO alphabet, if I look too hard at this, I'm likely to give myself a stroke.
I will always use "M as in 'Mancy'"
You of all people
This is diabolical. Thanks, I hate it.
Alfa
Balfa
Calfa
Dalfa
I just realized the irony in "Phonetic Alphabet" phonetically starting with the "F" sound
They really phoned it in when naming it.
phony alphabeta
At least Bravo and Lima are still there?
Edit: Hadn't gotten to L yet lol
I made this phonetic alphabet for the information age
How many of these characters predate it by several decades?
Aladddin and Rapunzel definitely, I think those predate Disney.
The idea isn't that the characters are new, it's that the names are more widespread than something like the Foxtrot dance, which many people alive today have never heard of.
reported for having Lilo instead of Luigi and Waldo instead of Waluigi
W for why and Y for you is delightful
Don't forget the Double-U for the letter D. It's an absolute mess.
C for cue and Q for queue! Evil genius.
This makes me irrationally angry. Well done!
Didn't know Englishers skipped the T in tsunami
Most of them do, yeah. You may hear a bit of a “tongue click” or something with others first before the “s”. A lot of first-language English speakers seem to really struggle when they see two consonants together that they haven’t previously encountered.
Especially at the start of words, see also e.g. pterodactyl, which from what I've gathered native english speakers just pronounce without the p.
I think we need to be more consistent with it, time to drop the 'p' sound from helicopter as per its roots.
It should be a "hard ts" which is something we mostly picked up from the French that is also a sound used in Japanese. So there should be a difference between saying "tsu" and saying "sue."
Tsu should be pronounced with teeth together and pushing air out through the teeth first, tongue against the lower front teeth for the hissy-t sound, before the vowel. (it's hard to write how to pronounce a word)
I read it as choonami which is still not very helpful
From the creators of sharknado, now (bwaaam) choonami 🚂🌊
Why Tsunami Four
Because Tsunami Three already happened and Tsunami Five hasn't happened yet
That’s “tsunami fower,” private.
Al-fa
Gulf
Niner
Null
Gotta love the fun pronunciations in the NATO phonetic.
posted before, but this is still my go-to:
Should have made I : Isle
Counterpoint: isle starts with the expected I sound so it’s 50/50 odds of getting I correct with aisle/isle. E being Eye and I being Ian (Ee-an) is actually more disruptive.
P pneumonia G gnu K knees
I used to do this all the time when I worked at a call center.
I always pronounce the G in gnu
In the software, the official position is that the G in GNU is pronounced. But for the animal known as a gnu, the g isn't pronounced.
animal? what, is there an animal called gnu? that's news to me
Have you seen the GNU logo?
Ever since Lion King came out the "wildebeest" name has been much more common.
But the most commonly used logo for the GNU software is an anthropomorphized gnu.
Reading this made my left eye twitch. Good job.
At first I was confused, then annoyed and finally relieved when I realised I was being punked
That's the exact train of thought I went through!
I helped design the original, always funny to see it out in the wild. Also llama would've been a better option for lima.
Got one behind me. Thank you for your service.
I use the semaphore code to shit-talk my boss to the fellow cubeslaves across the street from me.
Lol, well glad it's still being used
I thought L was ligma.
What's ligma?
Sugma balls!!
Haha, gottem
Who the hell is Steve Jobs?
Clear, informative, and concise. Let's roll this out immediately.
Just push to production. No approval required
M as in Mancy
NCD is leaking again. Someone get the 100mph tape.
Newyork City Disease?
Non-Credible Defense
[email protected]
Newjersey Colonial Dysmorphia
No Cope Dadio
Now that's a quality shitpost lol
I is for "imagine"
M is for "me"
A is for the letter "a"
G is for "gee!"
I is for..."imagine"
N is for "nice"
E is for "Egad!"
I said "imagine" twice!
::: spoiler edit i keep finding these
:::
https://www.amazon.com/Pterodactyl-Worst-Alphabet-Book-Ever/dp/1492674311
this is so evil 🤣🤣🤣
A for Horses
B for Mutton
C for Yourself
D for Dumb
E for Brick
F for Vessence
G for
H for
I for One
J for Oranges
K for
L for Leather
M for
N for
O for God’s Sake
P for
Q for Ages
R for Mo
S for
T for Baghdad
U for Mism
V for
W for
X for Breakfast
Y for
Z for
Can’t remember the rest. I feel like Y should be really obvious, but I’ve not even thought about this since I was a kid
Me?
Better suggestions for B:
Bidet is puzzling enough. Then there's modern portmanteaus like bussy (really, any word that has a more well-known P-word, like blot, will work) and NATO PA soundalikes like bike. And words with stress on other syllables that make the B less distinct, especially evil ones are before and benign for sounding like B4 and B9.
Ooh, I like before and benign because at first there doesn't seem to be anything tricky going on there.
"B as in bdellium." Or, "B as in subtle".
Too bad all the (common) silent b words are words with b in the middle, not at the beginning. Bdellium would work, but that's something I think 99.9% of the planet has never heard of. If that were allowed, I bet you could find extremely rare names for every other letter.
A silent B? Dumb.
I would have B as in bdellium. Or bee.
bloonk brain fell out error
Pictures painted by written text that you can hear.
Aisle Bail Coil Deal Eel Feel Grill Hill Ill Jail Kill Lay Mill Nil Oil Pill Quill Real Seal Till Until Veal Will Xylophone Yell Zeal
would work so much better.
This is brilliant and I despise it.
Why is it that when I search nato alphabet everything refers to it as a "phonetic" alphabet? It's not phonetic!!
There's gotta be better than Nine and Lima!
Neigh? Nor?
Lloyd? Lear?
"Nevermind" or "Next" would be pretty good.
L could maybe be "Lagos" because there's two cities named that and they're pronounced differently?
Oh, so L could be "lead"! Or similarly "live"
I like that because you can change it every other L, lol.
B : backslash
D : delete
G : gneiss
H : hour
L : llama
N : nave
P : pterosaur
R : rote
U : urn
V : veldt
X : xerographic
Z : zero
Llama
No idea for Nine, though.
Nine is evil because it's a valid character. When you are using a phonetic alphabet, you don't say "N as in Nine". The whole point is to speed up communication over crappy connections. Adding "as in" afterwards defeats the purpose of having a standard.
As for L, I would go with "Letter".
I like how they left "Lima" alone.
J as in Yalapeno.
Q as in queso.
Edit: having seen C, I retract my suggestion. Queue is better.
J as in Jragon
I think B should be ‘bog’, because many people say “D as in ‘dog’.”
Should be "Bee".
If they had thought of Ligma for L I'm sure they could have come up with something for B.
Bee was right there.
Maybe read it again? L is lima, no ‘g’. It and bravo are the only unchanged.
Hence
B for Base and V for Vase.
I always thought it was “G for Gnome” - huh, never too late to learn.
WTF is this???
Why tsunami four?
X: how bout either "Xenophobia" or even better, the 14th letter of the greek alphabet, as it's written in English: Xi.
Finally, a phonetic alphabet my brain might actually remember 😅
If I worked in an office, I’d print this and stick it to my wall. See if anyone notices.
saved for future reference
Yes, this is the way
LANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
that's definitely- oh. ohh i get it now.
Y'all laugh but the US adopted this alphabet back in 2025.
https://youtu.be/2fasxQN42KU
And neither is a phonetic alphabet. They're spelling alphabets. But that doesn't sound as cool
I was sure the peace symbol was from combining the letters K + G from "kg of weed makes people peaceful".
Whoever sells this as the "NATO Alphabet" needs to be taken outside and shot.
You can think of military what you like, but the real NATO alphabet is a phonetic masterpiece. RobWords has an interesting video about it on YT.
I think the joke here is exactly that some of the words are the worst for this purpose.
Looks like the joke flew over your head...
But to indulge your more serious angle, yeah, it's well thought through. And if your source is the one I think it is, that one also packages in that "NATO Phonetic Alphabet" is a bit of a misnomer.
It's not a phonetic alphabet, since it doesn't type out what sounds one must make to pronounce words correctly. And the main devs weren't NATO, but ICAO. NATO was just gonna adopt it and issue some feedback for improvements.