Spell it out: a name, an email or a number, one letter at a time, for a phone call

The 26 words

These are not our words. They are the International Civil Aviation Organization’s alphabet, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) prints it in its Aeronautical Information Manual (table 4-2-7, read October 10, 2026). The manual says the FAA uses it when a message cannot be heard well. The spellings Alfa, Juliett and Xray are the manual’s.

1. A as in Alfa
2. B as in Bravo
3. C as in Charlie
4. D as in Delta
5. E as in Echo
6. F as in Foxtrot
7. G as in Golf
8. H as in Hotel
9. I as in India
10. J as in Juliett
11. K as in Kilo
12. L as in Lima
13. M as in Mike
14. N as in November
15. O as in Oscar
16. P as in Papa
17. Q as in Quebec
18. R as in Romeo
19. S as in Sierra
20. T as in Tango
21. U as in Uniform
22. V as in Victor
23. W as in Whiskey
24. X as in Xray
25. Y as in Yankee
26. Z as in Zulu

The person on the other end does not need to know this list. “S as in Sierra” works because Sierra begins with S. Any clear word that begins with the letter does the same job, and a word of your own is fine.

What the page says for the rest

• Numbers: the digit and its everyday name. For 5: “5, the number five.” The manual has its own way of saying numbers on the radio; this page does not use it.
• Marks in an email address: @ is “at sign”, a period is “dot”, - is “dash”, _ is “underscore”.
• A space between two words is “space”.
• Letters with a mark: é is “E with an accent mark, as in Echo”, ü is “U with two dots, as in Uniform”, and ñ is “N with a tilde, as in November”. In Spanish, ñ is eñe.
• Capital and small letters: tick the box and the page says “capital B as in Bravo” and “small a as in Alfa”.
• In Spanish the page uses the same 26 words: S de Sierra, M de Mike. Pick Spanish in the second box.

Examples, worked by hand.

• Ruiz: R as in Romeo, U as in Uniform, I as in India, Z as in Zulu.
• j.q@x-1: J as in Juliett, dot, Q as in Quebec, at sign, X as in Xray, dash, 1, the number one.
• aB3, with the box ticked: small a as in Alfa, capital B as in Bravo, 3, the number three.
• Peña, in Spanish: P de Papa, E de Echo, eñe, A de Alfa.

Every time the page is built, a program checks the 26 words against the copy we saved from the manual, checks 24 examples worked by hand, and spells 2,000 made-up texts in both languages. A second program reads each spelling back and has to get the text that went in.

What this page does not do

• It does not speak. It shows the words; you say them, or you show the screen.
• It does not know how a name is said, only how it is written.
• It does not check that what you typed is right. It spells what is in the box.
• It has words for the 26 letters, the ten digits and 19 marks. For anything else it says it has no word.
• It spells up to 60 characters at a time.
• It keeps nothing. To keep the list, copy it or write it down.
• It does not know who is on the other end of a call. If someone called you and is asking for a code, a password or a card number, the page Is this a scam? has signs to look for first.