Phonetic Spelling

What it's for

Spell out a password, licence key, booking reference or Wi-Fi code so it can be read over the phone without mistakes. Each character is said in the NATO (ICAO) spelling alphabet: “Bravo” for B, “Seven” for 7, with capitals and lowercase said out loud and every symbol named in plain words (“hash”, “at sign”, “forward slash”).

For example, when you’re giving someone a temporary password over the phone, read out the groups, then type what they read back to you into Check what was read back to make sure they have it exactly.

How to use it

Type or paste the text. To read out gives it in groups (4 characters by default), each starting with its position, so the listener can say where they’ve got to. The table lists every character with what to say, and marks the ones that are easy to mix up, such as zero and the letter O, or one, lowercase L and capital I.

• Alphabet: NATO (ICAO), the one used almost everywhere; German (DIN 5009, the 2022 version with place names: Aachen, Berlin, Chemnitz), with German digits and its own words for Ä, Ö, Ü and ß; Western Union’s (Adams, Boston, Chicago), where Z is Zero and so the digit 0 is Nought; or the LAPD’s, used by US police (Adam, Boy, Charles).
• Say the case: “capital” and “lowercase” for every letter, “capital” only, or never (for text where case doesn’t matter).
• Radio digits uses the ICAO pronunciations Tree, Fower, Fife and Niner.
• Read aloud reads the groups with a pause between them, at the speed you choose. Choose it again to stop.

In Check what was read back, type the spoken words and the text appears. Common alternatives are understood (“Alpha”, “Juliet”, “dash”, “slash”, “dot”, “upper case”), as are the words of the other alphabets (“Koeln” for Köln too), and a letter or digit typed as itself is taken as it is. “Zero” is read as Z only when Western Union is chosen. Your settings are remembered in this browser; the text isn’t.

Example

Type this:

B7#k

To read out shows 1–4: capital Bravo, Seven, hash, lowercase Kilo. Type Bravo seven hash lowercase kilo into Check what was read back and the text is B7#k: when only lowercase letters are marked, the unmarked ones are taken as capitals.

Good to know

Letters with accents and other characters outside plain ASCII (apart from Ä, Ö, Ü and ß in the German alphabet) are shown by their Unicode number, and can’t be read back. “Capital”, “lowercase” and the symbols are said in English whichever alphabet is chosen. Read aloud only uses voices installed on this device, because some browsers’ other voices send the text to an online service; if there are none, it says so. Password Generator, Secret Splitter, UUID Generator, TOTP / HOTP Codes, the QR Code maker’s Wi-Fi password and the QR Code reader’s Wi-Fi details have a Spell it out button that shows the same spelling on their own page.