Have you ever tried verbally communicating with somebody, say, over the phone or via a videocall and struggled to spell something out to them? An example being when you try to spell your name to the person on the other end and they think you're saying E instead of B, or M instead of N? Lets face it when you say E over the phone it can easily be misheard as B.
Sometimes, especailly in vital communications such as booking appointments or for pilots communicating with Air Traffic Control, you need to be precise. That's where The Phonetic Alphabet comes in. It was invented to be used as an alphabet for spelling words out. Each letter of the English alphabet has a corresponding 'code word' which can be used instead of saying the letter; the code word always starts with the same letter. An example being for the letter B its code word is Bravo. You would then say 'Bravo' rather than B. Let's take this further and say the word 'Hi' using the Phonetic Alphabet - It would be 'Hotel, India'.
You can see the full list of UK Phonetic Alphabet code words in the table below..
Website by CSB Design