NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter

How to use the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO phonetic alphabet replaces every letter with a code word chosen to be unmistakable over a bad radio connection: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, and so on through Zulu. It was adopted by NATO in 1956 and is now the worldwide standard for aviation, maritime radio, the military, and emergency services.

1. Type your text above — a name, a call sign, a flight number — or paste code words and flip the direction to Decode.
2. Read the output. Each character becomes one word: MAYDAY becomes Mike Alfa Yankee Delta Alfa Yankee. A slash (/) marks where your original words were split.
3. Say it out loud using the pronunciation hints in the chart (AL-fah, BRAH-voh, WUN for One) — the rhythm matters as much as the words.
4. Check the chart below the converter for any letter or digit, with its official pronunciation.

The tricky spellings

Three code words trip people up: it is ALFA (not Alpha), JULIETT (two Ts, not Juliet), and XRAY (one word, not X-Ray). Digits have their own words — ZERO through NINE — with special pronunciations like WUN, FIFE, and NIN-ER designed to cut through static.

Why characters in [brackets] appear

The NATO alphabet only covers A–Z and 0–9. Anything else — punctuation, accented letters like é, emoji — has no code word, so this converter wraps it in brackets instead of silently deleting it.

How do you say SOS in the NATO phonetic alphabet?

Sierra Oscar Sierra — one code word per letter, spoken as three separate words.

What is the NATO phonetic alphabet used for?

It replaces letters with unmistakable code words — Alfa, Bravo, Charlie — so call signs, names, and spellings survive bad radio connections, accents, and noise. Pilots, the military, and emergency services use it worldwide.

Is it Alfa or Alpha?

Alfa. The official NATO spelling is ALFA, and Juliett is spelled with two Ts. This tool uses the official ICAO spellings throughout.

How are numbers spoken?

Zero through Nine — written ZERO, ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE. This converter encodes and decodes all ten digits.

What does the slash mean in the output?

A slash (/) marks a word boundary from your original text: Hotel India / Yankee Oscar Uniform decodes to HI YOU.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. Conversion runs entirely in your browser with JavaScript. Nothing is uploaded or stored.