How it works
This NATO alphabet quiz has 112 questions on the spelling alphabet from Alfa to Zulu. A letter is shown and you pick its code word, or you read a word as it sounds on the radio and name the letter. Other questions spell out words, cover the digits and trace the alphabet's history. Every answer has a note, and misses go into a pile you can repeat.
Read the full guide
Seven topics, from single letters to whole words
The Start from menu, below the question, splits the questions seven ways: letter to code word (26 questions), code word to letter (26), reading a spelled word (14), spelling a word yourself (12), how the words are said (11), digits and numbers (10), and spelling and history (13). The second topic never prints the code word. It shows the word as ICAO respells it, such as keh BECK, because on the radio you hear a word and never see it.
Practice first, then a timed run
In Practice mode, tap an answer and you see whether you were right, with a note and its source. Wrong answers go to the Missed pile and leave it once you get them right. For a timed run, press Exam mode below the question, then Start the exam. It draws up to 26 questions from the topic you chose and puts 7 minutes on the clock. All feedback waits until the end. Then you get your score, a table by topic with the weakest one marked, and every miss with its note. There is no pass mark.
Wrong choices that teach something
Many of the wrong choices were once right. Able, Baker and Dog come from the Able Baker alphabet that the U.S. military adopted in 1941. Coca, Metro, Nectar, Union and Extra are the five words of the 1951 version that were replaced before the final alphabet took effect on 1 March 1956. Others are Greek letters such as Beta and Gamma, which many people expect to be right.
- Learn the 26 words in four runs: Alfa to Foxtrot, Golf to Lima, Mike to Romeo, Sierra to Zulu.
- Spell real things aloud: your name, your street, the license plate of the car in front.
- Mind the stress. Papa is pah PAH, Hotel is ho TELL, and Quebec is keh BECK, with no kw sound at the start.
- The digits have radio forms too: tree, fower, fife and niner. A number is read one digit at a time, so 17 is one seven.
- Write Alfa and Juliett, the official spellings. Alpha and Juliet are never offered as wrong choices here, so a spelling habit cannot cost you a question.
Questions and answers
Is this an official NATO or ICAO quiz?
No. It is an unofficial study aid with no connection to NATO or ICAO, which are named here only because the alphabet comes from them. ICAO brought the final version into use on 1 March 1956, and NATO made it effective the same day. A score here counts toward no license or qualification.
Why is it spelled Alfa and Juliett?
Those are the official spellings. Alfa has an f because speakers of some languages would not read ph as an f sound, and Juliett ends in a double t so that French speakers do not treat the last t as silent. The quiz also writes X-ray with a hyphen and Whiskey with an e, as ICAO does.
Is the NATO phonetic alphabet really phonetic?
Not in the way a linguist uses the word. A phonetic alphabet writes down speech sounds. This one gives each letter a name that is hard to mishear, so that B, D, P and V become Bravo, Delta, Papa and Victor. Its official ICAO name says as much: the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet.
Where do the pronunciations come from?
From the respelling ICAO gives for each word, taken from the table in the Wikipedia article on the alphabet, which cites ICAO Annex 10. Capital letters mark the stressed syllable, as in no VEM ber. ICAO also allows SHAR lee for Charlie and OO nee form for Uniform. The quiz has no audio, so say each word aloud as you go.
When was this checked, and was anything left out?
Every question was checked on the date shown under the quiz, against NATO's own history of the alphabet and the Wikipedia article, which cites the ICAO documents. Two details were left out because those sources disagree: a spelling of X-ray and the 1951 word for G. The 26 code words have not changed since 1956.
Can I print the questions?
Yes. After a round, Print lists its questions, to trim or add to, and prints them with numbered choices and a line for a name, date and score. A tick on With answer key gives the same numbers with each right choice, its note and the source.