![]() Because Morse code has a long range, it was also used to transmit the international maritime emergency frequency (500 kHz), which was monitored by NATO ships at sea until the late 1990s. It was widely used in the 1890s for early radio communication, before it was possible to transmit voice. Morse code transmits text through on-off tones, light-flashes or clicks. It assigns a word to each letter so that a letter's name begins with the letter itself. The NATO alphabet became effective in 1956 and, a few years later, turned into the established universal phonetic alphabet for all military, civilian and amateur radio communications. The NATO phonetic alphabet is useful to prevent spelling mistakes or miscommunication, especially when people from different countries with different accents and pronunciations work together. William Turner's painting of HMS Victory at Trafalgar, with the signal flags highlighted. The symbol is a combination of the letters "N" and "D" (for nuclear disarmament). Another standard – semaphore – inspired the peace sign. "Bravo Zulu", typically signalled with naval flags on ships at sea and meaning "well done" is also commonly used in written communication by the military, for example by replying "BZ" to an email. Some standards can be found in everyday civilian and military life. Not completely though: in certain situations NATO still encodes messages via Morse using light-flashes and other visual signals because they are difficult to detect electronically. However, while the phonetic alphabet is widely used and ships still use flag signals to communicate, other standards such as Morse code have become practically obsolete. If you have ever said "Bravo" to mean "B" when speaking on the phone for instance, then you have used one of the most recognised standards, the NATO phonetic alphabet. Click on the image to see a larger version. If you’re ready to start doing some real work on your spoken English and listening comprehension, check out my book at /book or my online school and courses at RachelsEnglishAcademy.NATO phonetic alphabet, flags and signals. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and sign up for my mailing list, both free, to keep up on the weekly lessons. I make a new video every week to help non-native English speakers communicate better in English. If you want a free mp3 download of these letter names, visit /alphabet Using these specific words for letters will help increase your understandability on the phone. It’s Y as in Yankee, U as in Uniform, L as in Lima, P as in Papa, C as in Charlie, X as in X-ray. Luckily, by the time I had to give another confirmation number, I had looked them up. I was in the process of making this video, but I hadn’t yet memorized all of the right letter names. Just the other day, I found myself needing to give a confirmation number over the phone. Or you can just say the word: Romeo, Alpha, Charlie, Hotel, Echo, Lima. So if someone asks you to spell your name, you can say: R as in Romeo, A as in Alpha, C as in Charlie, H as in Hotel, E as in Echo, L as in Lima. So no matter what your accent is, you’ll probably be understood using this alphabet system. Apparently the letters were chosen for understandability based on hundreds of thousands of comprehension tests involving 31 nationalities. A system was developed in the 1950s by the International Civil Aviation Organization to put a word with each letter. So many misunderstandings can happen when spelling. Why? I think it’s because unvoiced sounds like SS and TH don’t carry well over the phone.Īnd we have so many letter names that rhyme: B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V, Z, or A, J, K, or I, W But even though it’s so common, often, over the phone, people don’t understand me. Smith is the most common last name in the United States. So, there is a specific set of words corresponding to each letter of the alphabet to make spelling over the phone much easier. Letter names, over the phone can be unclear and hard to distinguish, and not just for non-native speakers. Have you ever noticed, when you’re on the phone, that you often need to spell things out? Your name, for example, or maybe the name of the street you live on. YouTube blocked? Click here to see the video. Learn the target words in the NATO phonetic alphabet to make spelling out names, address, confirmation numbers, and more much easier! Alpha, bravo, Charlie: each letter of the alphabet has a target word to increase understandability in spelling.
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