# Phonetic Alphabet question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 5, 2025, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768 "2025-09-05T03:31:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/1 "2025-09-05T03:31:20Z")
In the Phonetic Alphabet for the letter “L” one uses “lima”. Is it pronounced “lyma” like the bean or “leema” like the city in Peru?
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/2 "2025-09-05T03:33:43Z")
[According to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet#Tables) it is pronounced:
- LEE mah
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/3 "2025-09-05T03:35:42Z")
Thank you.
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/4 "2025-09-05T04:33:02Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#):
>
> Phonetic Alphabet
> **[NATO phonetic alphabet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet)**
>
> This is an accepted version of this page
>
> The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet or simply the Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet, is the most widely used set of clear-code words for communicating the letters of the Latin/Roman alphabet. Technically a radiotelephonic spelling alphabet, it goes by various names, including NATO spelling alphabet, ICAO phonetic alphabet, and ICAO spelling alphabet. The ITU phonetic alphabet and figure code i...
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/5 "2025-09-05T19:08:18Z")
I miss Able Baker Charlie. We used to call each other by our NATO initials at work sometime. I’m Delta Tango which I think is awesome.
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/6 "2025-09-06T04:35:28Z")
I hated it when things went Tango Uniform.
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/7 "2025-09-06T05:37:22Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> it is pronounced:
>
> - LEE mah
I concur.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/8 "2025-09-06T07:58:42Z")
One of the design specifications for the phonetic alphabet, and the choice of words in it, was that the words should be very different from each other in their pronunciation. This maximises the chances that a letter would be correctly understood even in case of pronunciation errors or interruptions in transmission. So it’s a feature of the alphabet that someone who mispronounces Lima as “ly-ma” still has a good chance of being understood correctly. But the intended pronunciation is indeed Lee-ma.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/9 "2025-09-06T11:40:13Z")
When I was a teen, my High School had a CB Radio class, and our call sign was ZL4BH, which I learned was spoken as “Zulu Lima 4 Bravo Hotel.” I was largely unfamiliar with the NATO alphabet at the time, and learned that much of it in that class (and Morse Code too).
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/10 "2025-09-06T17:18:11Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#):
>
> I hated it when things went Tango Uniform.
One of my favorite!
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/11 "2025-09-06T17:20:41Z")
> [@Schnitte](#):
>
> One of the design specifications for the phonetic alphabet, and the choice of words in it, was that the words should be very different from each other in their pronunciation
I once came up with an anti-phonetic alphabet where each of the letters sounded like several others. I should have written it down.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/12 "2025-09-06T17:21:12Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#):
>
> our call sign was ZL4BH, which I learned was spoken as “Zulu Lima 4 Bravo Hotel.”
Did you pronounce the 4 the usual way, or “fower”?
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/13 "2025-09-06T21:17:30Z")
I don’t remember. For New Zealand accents, that would sound very odd. I think we did have to say “niner” whenever we said nine, though.
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/14 "2025-09-06T23:14:52Z")
> [@Schnitte](#):
>
> Did you pronounce the 4 the usual way, or “fower”?
I love those ‘pronunciation aids’ sheets. Some were pretty funny. I remember “pa-PA”, “KAY-bek”; and “thuh-REE”, “fife”.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/15 "2025-09-06T23:22:27Z")
I had one pinned to my cube wall for a while.
A: aisle
C: cue
E: eye
G: gnat
P: pterodactyl
T: tsunami
Y: you
etc…
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/16 "2025-09-07T00:08:59Z")
The Filipino version includes
F = effective
G = Jesus
I = eyeball
L = elephant
M = emerald
N = pneumonia
Q = cubit
R = artistic
S = essay
U = Europe
X = excalibur
Y = why me?
🤪
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2025, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/17 "2025-09-07T00:33:16Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> P: pterodactyl
In the _Tintin_ Comics, Thompson would identify himself as “Thompson, with a P as in ‘psychology’!” (His partner was “Thomson, without a P, as in ‘Venezuela’!”)
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2025, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/18 "2025-09-07T00:51:16Z")
> [@Bullitt](#):
>
> “thuh-REE”,
That’s real old school. The approved pronunciation of “three” was changed to “TREE” back in the 1950s. So won, too, tree, fower, fife, six, SEV-en, ate, niner, and ZEE-roh.
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2025, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/19 "2025-09-07T05:01:26Z")
K: knight
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2025, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-alphabet-question/1022768/20 "2025-09-15T02:30:35Z")
I thought it was “fiiyev”
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