Is NATO alphabet used in countries where English is not spoken? [closed]

I lived in the UK for a couple a years and I was surprised by how widespread is the usage of NATO alphabet among civilians. Obviously all pilots and military personnel use it, but I live in Spain and nobody here uses NATO alphabet, at least not the "common" version that appears in Hollywood movies.

So I was wondering if NATO is used in any other country that does not speak English and is part of NATO, such as France, Germany, Italy...

europe

Best Answer

When we happen to know the NATO alphabet we will use it in international situations, where the other one is speaking a different language from our own.

But most of the people I know are not that familiar with it and will have to think hard beforehand or need to substitute at least some of the letters.

What I see in the Netherlands, people (still mostly men) who have been in the army use it almost full time, people who work in international situations often know it. The people who have been into radio communication (ham radio and its brothers) will know it. And that is about it.

The rest of us uses first names in the longer form, hoping that the names are spelled with the same initial for the people we talk with.

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Is the NATO phonetic alphabet still used?

In 1956, NATO allies decided to adopt one phonetic alphabet for all members to use, changing only a few letters from the previous version. It's the alphabet still used today.

Where is the NATO alphabet used?

The NATO phonetic alphabet is a spelling alphabet used by airline pilots, police, members of the military, and other officials when communicating over radio or telephone. The purpose of the phonetic alphabet is to ensure that letters are clearly understood even when speech is distorted or hard to hear.

Is the NATO and phonetic alphabet the same?

The NATO alphabet, despite its name, is not a phonetic alphabet which uses symbols or codes to represent a speech sound or letter. It is a spelling alphabet (also called a telephone alphabet, radio alphabet or voice-procedure alphabet), which uses words/names to represent alphabetical letters.

Why does the military use the NATO phonetic alphabet?

The NATO phonetic alphabet helps avoid ambiguity and makes it clear what the letters are, she says. In the mid-1950s, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) became the first group to approve and use the new alphabet, hence its name. However, several other variations preceded it.

Phonetic Numbers ~ Airtraffic / Military / NATO

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