Learn the phonetic alphabet

I find this usually identifies the person I am talking to as a veteran. Military that is.

I do this by habit (former military here). But I never get asked what I'm saying from others. Comes in really handy given that I do a lot of IPT where we're constantly having the conversation in your example to get the MAC from the phones. :)

Using the NATO phonetic alphabet saved me so much frustration when doing first level helpdesk. So much so when I became a second level, I started teaching it to the new first level staff.

Being an amateur radio operator, the NATO phonetics are second nature to me now. When in doubt, use standard phonetics. I hate when people make up phonetics when I am thinking NATO. It takes so much longer to get the message across, whether it's on the phone or the radio.

I'll bite. Why 'niner'? 'Nine' doesn't rhyme with any of the numbers or letters. Nine works just as well, and it's 'normal'....or am I missing something?

I often use this at my line of work and when I communicate with people if I need to spell out something to them. But just for the knack of it, I sometimes use country names or prefecture names (for my Japanese friends) which makes it a lot easier for those who do not know alpha,bravo, etc, etc. ! :-)

ive been doing this forever stretch. being signal has engrained it into my brain. it helps TONS when im talking to someone even non-military.

I'll never understand why this is not taught at school.

@Aaron - "nine" and "five" can sound similar on a staticky radio transmission, thus "niner"

Luckily, in my native tongue since you need to memorize a few words only thanks to unambiguous spelling. Names are commonly used to communicate ambiguous letters, like B and P. There's of course the standard military alphabet but it just slows you down since you have to remember which the name for P is, Paavo, Petteri or Pekka or... Or, for Z you need to say "zeta" and not Zorro which everyone knows. A fine example of military bureaucracy.

I do this by habit too, not from military but from amateur radio back in the day. I think it's going to become a lot more important with the advent of IPv6 too!

@Jordan & @arrasmithf, I was about to say the same thing about the numbers. Good to have that pointed out.

I've also heard that when performing countdowns over a radio (10, 9, 8,...), the number "five" is skipped (a pause is inserted in its place) because it sounds too much like "fire". Can anyone confirm if this is true or just a myth?

joshlowe, I've also heard that, I think maybe on MythBusters?? It does make sense on a noisy connection.

I learned these when studying for my Ham radio license in Europe. I don't think it is specific to NATO, I think it is more international than that.

I've been doing this for years and I can vouch it is extremely helpful

3 is actually tree

I work in a call centre and employed this to avoid confusion! Unfortunately some people are too stupid and don't understand what this means, ever after I explain this. This is especially helpful when I have to give people product keys.

I studied flying in the USA in the early 1980's. This particular phonet alphabet is used by NATO and thus the US military, but it was originally developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Law enforcement officers use different phonetics, for some reason...I don't know the whole set but it seems to start out Abel, Baker...

but doesn't zulu kind of sound like zero?

I just fully understood foxtrot uniform charlie kilo by the bloodhound gang.

@dirt, how do you pronounce zulu that it sounds similar to zero?

I have worked on helpdesks for a number of years, and using the phonetic alphabet has helped me alot over the years. I have a copy printed on a small piece of paper attached to my screen for reference when my mind goes blank. I tend to prefer to ask lusers to click on 'start' then 'run' and type commands in ie sysdm.cpl, firewall.cpl, ncpa.cpl rather than try to talk them through opening control panel, switch to classic view etc.

This alphabet is also standard issue among telcos for describing circuit IDs, demarcs, etc. Extremely useful stuff...

@joshlowe I'm currently active duty Navy. Every morning, aboard any ship, there's a countdown for everyone to synchronize time when starting the day. 5 is always silent. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6,...,4, 3, 2, 1, Mark.

As well as 5 being "fife", 9 being "niner" and 4 being "fow-er", for clarity 1 should be "wun".

@test - I think when dirt says he thinks zulu sounds similar to zero, he's probably thinking in the Australian/New Zealand/South African accent, or one of the more cockney British ones. They say it more like Dz-aow-laow and zero like zeh-row, instead of the more straightforward American zoo-loo which sounds nothing like zee-ro.

Living in Italy, one learns another system: Ancona, Bologna, Como, Domodossola... A whole cluster of alternatives, just for the curious, is here: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/radio/phonetic-alph/full/

I use it in my job as a Customer service Representative on Tracfone/Net10/Straight Talk, Its amazing how accurate can be to get addresses and other important information. Actually the company encourage us to use it.

This is also used by HAM Radio operators as well. They have to pass a test on this in order to get their license.

Being a Amateur Radio operator I start correcting people when they are using the wrong word. I had coworkers ask why I used them, I'm not sure they really understood the reasoning.

come one people...read before you post....seriously I know you think your the first..but when there are 14 explanations on fife, tree, niner...etc.

@Military...your just wrong. Re-study your alphabet. Tree, Fower, and Fife are correct according to NATO...don't believe me ask you C.O. Last I checked to unless you were at the meeting when NATO decided on these terms....you only believe its because it sounds like five. Guess what both reasons are true. Maybe one came first...but since the correct pronunciation of five is fife...kind of hard to confuse that with nine. In fact most of these choices were made because of several reasons not just one. Maybe you need to go back to OTS or basic. Then again you probably weren't actually in the military anyways.

Here's a question for all the ham radio/military folks... Somehow, and I never would have thought this before, but somehow on our radios (I'm in EMS), 3 sounds like 2 and vice versa. Sometimes, with some people. Don't know why, and it's only sometimes...I'd think that they were just confusing their numbers, but it happens often enough and they get pissed enough when I doublecheck that I doubt it. Has anyone ever encountered that? We aren't using the phonetic alphabet unless we have to, we don't have a lot of letters to say over the radio, just our callsigns, like M853 etc.