I only got the handful I did because Atlanta airport used to rattle off where everyone's connecting flights were and say things like "the flight to dulles is at gate E-echo 4 or the flight to tuscon is at B-Bravo 15"
"Flow" is really not the point here. The letters are meant to be distinct enough that they can be recognized even with some amount of interference. Michael has the disadvantage of sounding more like Hotel, which is better avoided when feasible.
The phonetic letter is definitely spelled "Alfa" with an f. As mentioned above, this has roots in both the British and American military, but it is now codified as the "International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet." It is used by NATO, ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), and ITU (International Telecommunication Union), and probably a lot of other organizations. Basically, anyone who needs to spell things out aloud in English.
This is just nitpicking. Since both are pronounced the same, the spelling doesn't really matter - it's not intended to be written so spelling is moot. Both forms of Whiskey/Whisky would work too.
According to Wikipedia it should be Alfa to avoid potential mispronunciation by non-English speakers. Similarly, the spelling should be "Juliett" with the double T to avoid mispronunciation by French speakers.
My IPS (Advanced 8th grade science) teacher makes us used these when answering multiple choice test questions. Thanks to all in the armed forces for your service!!
Great Quiz! Although, could you accept "Lemur" for "Lima". They sound exactly the same and that's how most people know them: from hearing not from sight. I was so sure it was lemur I only got it from trying loads of different 'mispellings'.
I get what you're saying, being that I'm Aussie and we have a non-rhotic accent - we say them the same, too. But, those in NZ's South Island, Scotland, USA, etc, who have rhotic accents, the two are completely separate sounding words. So, while I STRONGLY disagree with your claim of 'most people' knowing them without knowing how to spell them, let's leave it in hopes that people might learn a thing or two from this site.
I believe I learned it "indigo", too. I don't know if only HAMs use that, or if people forget the correct one, so people started using "india" as well.
Hams use the ITU alphabet, which has India. Indigo might have been part of an earlier alphabet, e.g. one like Able, Baker, Charlie, David, Easy, etc. By the way, "ham" is not all caps when refering to licensed operators in the Radio Amateur Service. I see that error a lot.
Got it first try, 4.03 is my best. Used to take 3 hour drives every couple weeks so we killed time by reading the number plates in phonetic. Weirdly enough I first learnt it from a wordsearch XD
For everyone complaining about it being "alfa" and not "alpha"--QM is correct.
As wikipedia explains "In the official[5] version of the alphabet, the non-English spellings Alfa and Juliett are used. Alfa is spelled with an f as it is in most European languages because the English and French spelling alpha would not be pronounced properly by native speakers of some other languages – who may not know that ph should be pronounced as f. Juliett is spelled with a tt for French speakers, because they may otherwise treat a single final t as silent. In some English versions of the alphabet, one or both of these may have their standard English spelling.[6]"
(Which points out that QM has the wrong spelling for Juliett. ;) )
But, if the t sound were dropped from the end of the word, the first letter would still be pronounced the same, as is also true for alpha. Therefore, either would be correct because the first letter sound is the only one of importance.
In the official[5] version of the alphabet, ... Alfa is spelled with an f ... because ... alpha would not be pronounced properly by native speakers of some other languages
Yet they are fine with not calling it the alfabet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I got most of them, and used to know them all, until I started working in law enforcement where we use an entirely different set of alphas. Too many choices in my head now! :)
Even after working in a hospital ER for 2 years where we used these every day... things started to unravel after I got to H. (maybe because in the hospital we used igloo instead of whatever they've got here, it messed up my groove)
Looking over the ones I missed... we also did not use Mike or Oscar because the codes were frequently used for "John and Jane Does" and we wouldn't want someone to get confused and think it was the person's actual name.
I'm in the process of memorizing these for my air traffic control class. Came in handy to test my knowledge. Missed three of them. For some reason I can never remember Sierra and Tango. And for some reason I forgot Romeo.
Owners wife?? So it was only hís pet? (Or only when the dog got in trouble? No its your dog, you are the one that always let him sit on the couch next to you.)
I've nothing to do with neither military nor law inforcement, and English is only my third language. I wanted to learn these when I was a teenager and still remember them. Being an all-around mom ;) I also taught these to my children when they were young. Here in Finland we call this 'Nato alphabet', but we naturally have our own version (mostly consisting of Finnish first names), too.
Working at an airport, I could name them all easily. Here in Germany, aviation (and probably the military) is the only environment in which I've heard it being used. In everyday life we use first names and other nouns to spell out words (e.g. O = Otto, N = North pole).
Never been in the military, but I've picked up some of these in various places. From WWE, I know Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta. From the Bloodhound Gang I know Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo. From the TV show Dollhouse I knew random ones like Echo, Alpha, Whiskey, Victor, and one or two more.
Am I the only one who thinks Golf and Mike could be improved for better clarity? I mean, I've never had to use these, but I can imagine on a fuzzy radio connection that those ending consonants just get lost. Two syllables would be better.
I thought "I" was Indigo not India?
3:27
As wikipedia explains "In the official[5] version of the alphabet, the non-English spellings Alfa and Juliett are used. Alfa is spelled with an f as it is in most European languages because the English and French spelling alpha would not be pronounced properly by native speakers of some other languages – who may not know that ph should be pronounced as f. Juliett is spelled with a tt for French speakers, because they may otherwise treat a single final t as silent. In some English versions of the alphabet, one or both of these may have their standard English spelling.[6]"
(Which points out that QM has the wrong spelling for Juliett. ;) )
In the official[5] version of the alphabet, ... Alfa is spelled with an f ... because ... alpha would not be pronounced properly by native speakers of some other languages
Yet they are fine with not calling it the alfabet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Juliet...
Juliett...
Juliet...
Juliett...
Still 3:32 isn't that bad
I mean, I got 100%, but I tried Mic first.
http://www.icao.int/Pages/AlphabetRadiotelephony.aspx
No words.......
Your best time is 4:09 remaining
Golf Oscar Oscar Delta
Quebec Uniform India Zulu
I've nothing to do with neither military nor law inforcement, and English is only my third language. I wanted to learn these when I was a teenager and still remember them. Being an all-around mom ;) I also taught these to my children when they were young. Here in Finland we call this 'Nato alphabet', but we naturally have our own version (mostly consisting of Finnish first names), too.
Someone will get the reference.