What is the difference between the NATO and police alphabets?

The NATO/ICAO alphabet uses words like Alpha, Bravo and Charlie and is standard for aviation and the military. The police alphabet uses Adam, Boy, Charles and is common in US law-enforcement radio.

Can it read the spelling out loud?

Yes. Press Speak to use your browser's built-in text-to-speech to read the phonetic spelling aloud — useful for practising or dictating over the phone.

How are numbers handled?

Numbers are spelled out in full alongside the letters, so a reference like A7 becomes "Alpha Seven", keeping the whole string unambiguous.

Why use a phonetic alphabet at all?

Many letters sound alike on a noisy line — B, P, D, T, V, and so on. Replacing each letter with a distinct word (Bravo, Papa, Delta) removes that ambiguity, which matters for names, postcodes and confirmation codes.

A capital letter is shown with a capitalised phonetic word so you can convey case if needed, for example "Alpha" for A and lowercase styling for a.

When should I use the police alphabet instead of NATO?

Use the police (Adam Boy Charles) alphabet if your audience expects US law-enforcement conventions; otherwise the NATO alphabet is the international default understood across aviation, the military and most call centres.

No. The generator and speech run entirely in your browser and nothing is sent or stored.

What is the Phonetic Spelling Generator?

Free phonetic spelling generator that turns names, codes and references into NATO (Alpha Bravo Charlie) or police (Adam Boy Charles) phonetics, with text-to-speech. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Phonetic Spelling Generator

Name: Phonetic Spelling Generator
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Get one useful tool a week

Like this tool? Enter your email and we'll send you one genuinely useful Gera tool a week — plus a link to come back to this one. No spam, one-click unsubscribe any time.

Phonetic spelling generator

Spell out names, reference numbers and codes clearly over the phone or radio, where similar-sounding letters are easy to mishear. Choose the NATO/ICAO alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie) or the police alphabet (Adam, Boy, Charles), type your text, and get an unambiguous phonetic spelling instantly — ready to read or hear aloud.

How it works

The tool maps each letter of your input to its phonetic word in the selected alphabet, spells numbers in full, and joins everything with spaces:

input:  "AB7"
NATO:   Alpha Bravo Seven
police: Adam Boy Seven

Capital letters are shown with a capitalised phonetic word so case can be conveyed. Press Speak to read the result aloud using your browser’s text-to-speech.

Why letters sound alike — and why phonetic alphabets fix it

On a telephone call or radio transmission, several groups of letters become nearly indistinguishable under noise or compression: B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V, Z all rhyme to some degree. Add a poor connection and names like “Simmons” versus “Timmons” or postcodes like “DT” versus “BT” can flip without anyone noticing.

A phonetic alphabet replaces each letter with a word that sounds nothing like any other word in the set. “Delta” and “Tango” cannot be confused; plain “D” and “T” easily can.

Full alphabet comparison

Letter	NATO/ICAO	US Police
A	Alpha	Adam
B	Bravo	Boy
C	Charlie	Charles
D	Delta	David
E	Echo	Edward
F	Foxtrot	Frank
G	Golf	George
H	Hotel	Henry
I	India	Ida
J	Juliett	John
K	Kilo	King
L	Lima	Lincoln
M	Mike	Mary
N	November	Nora
O	Oscar	Ocean
P	Papa	Paul
Q	Quebec	Queen
R	Romeo	Robert
S	Sierra	Sam
T	Tango	Tom
U	Uniform	Union
V	Victor	Victor
W	Whiskey	William
X	X-ray	X-ray
Y	Yankee	Young
Z	Zulu	Zebra

Worked examples

Booking reference “PX73B” — a typical airline or hotel code over the phone:

NATO: Papa X-ray Seven Three Bravo
Police: Paul X-ray Seven Three Boy

Email address domain “@GBTQ.co”:

NATO: Golf Bravo Tango Quebec . Charlie Oscar

When to use each alphabet

Choose NATO/ICAO when speaking with anyone internationally — it is the standard across aviation, maritime communications, the military, and most call centres. It is designed to be unambiguous across many languages and accents.

Choose the police (Adam-Boy-Charles) alphabet when your audience works in US law enforcement or emergency services and expects those conventions. The words differ enough from NATO that mixing them up mid-call is itself a source of confusion, so pick one and stay consistent throughout.

Everything runs in your browser with nothing uploaded.