How to use the NATO phonetic alphabet converter
The NATO phonetic alphabet spells A as Alfa and B as Bravo so that letters cannot be mixed up over a phone line or a radio. It is the quickest way to read out a booking reference, a tracking number, an account number or the Latin spelling of a name when B and V or M and N sound almost the same. Paste your text, pick a direction and the result appears immediately, ready to copy.
The converter covers the 26 letters A to Z plus the digits 0 to 9 using the ICAO written forms Zero through Nine. Note that spoken practice differs: 9 is frequently said as Niner, 3 as Tree and 5 as Fife, and aviation, military and maritime services do not agree on every detail, so the tool prints the written spelling and leaves pronunciation to your own procedure. Spaces between words are marked with a slash so you can hear where one word ends.
Characters outside the table are never invented. Punctuation, accented letters, Hangul, Japanese and Chinese characters are passed through exactly as typed, and the result panel tells you how many characters stayed unchanged. The reverse direction really is implemented: paste code words and you get the letters back, with the common variants Alpha, Juliet, X-ray and Niner recognised alongside the standard spellings.
Frequently asked questions
The international standard spellings are Alfa and Juliett. Because Alpha and Juliet are common in everyday English, the code-word-to-letter direction accepts both spellings.
The written forms are Zero through Nine. On the radio, 9 is often spoken as Niner, 3 as Tree and 5 as Fife, and the habit differs between aviation, military and maritime use, so this tool shows the written form only.
Anything outside A-Z and 0-9, including punctuation, accented letters and Hangul, is passed through unchanged, and the result shows how many characters were left alone.