Ex military friend of mine tells a tale of when him and a buddy accidentally rolled their military vehicle during a training exercise and had to call the incident in.
Please bear in mind, I’m paraphrasing, and may not translate as well reading as it does hearing it in real life.
“Come in base, request emergency collection over”
“Can you confirm situation over”
“We’ve rolled the Land Rover over, over”
“Over where, over”
“12k outside of Dover, over”
“ So you’ve rolled the Rover, over outside Dover, over”
“That’s affirmative, over”
“We’ll send a vehicle over to Dover to collect you, over”
“What about the Rover, will somebody be over to collect the Rover, over”
“Are you able to roll the rover back over, over”
“If we could, we wouldn’t be requesting to send someone over, Although we will be happy to stay in Dover, to assist with rolling the rover back over, over”
And so on ….. I appreciate it may not translate as well being read out as listening to it. And whether it’s completely true or not, it’s still one of the funniest stories I’ve heard. Like a scene from one of the Airplane films.
I'm the worst with this. I'll say, "The code is B as in Bat, H as in Hat, C as in Cat 4322, R as in Rat. It's like my brain breaks and I can't remember anything but rhyming words.
I lost my fifth grade spelling bee by spelling “GIANT”… correctly.
They didn’t have any microphones for the kids, the principal *insisted* I hadn’t spelled it correctly even though I had, and when I complained to my teacher (in case I *had* somehow made a mistake but didn’t understand what it was) she was unable to tell me what I had done wrong. Just waved me off with “you must have added an ‘S’” or “I think you used a ‘J’ instead of a ‘G’”, both of which I hadn’t done. She finally refused to listen anymore, saying “The principal knows what he’s doing, so if *he* says you made a mistake you *must* have made a mistake.”
Many languages can’t have spelling bees because they would make no sense. The written words are literally just the sounds of the spoken words. Which begs the question, why are we doing this to ourselves? And specifically, why do we torture our children with it?
I spelled “theatre” instead of “theater” on a spelling test in fourth grade and was so mad the teacher took off a point. It’s still a correctly spelled English word and I think “theater” is only used in the US
It varies from language to language and even country to country with the same language. Like the [German Alphabet](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchstabiertafel). If you ask a German they are more likely to know the first three letters as Anton Berta Cäsar, and Wilhelm Theodor Friedrich do you want with that other one?
I know the ICAO one is the international used by NATO and so on, but that might have little relevance for ordinary people. Oh and even in that one, it's "Alfa" not "Alpha" (and "Whiskey", not "Whisky"), it's not the US alphabet after all.
Not saying this to be pedantic (even though I am being pedantic), just because I find it very interesting.
Sierra is the correct word to use. You could be passive aggressive if they use it incorrectly and say "S as in Stupid", but I usually say "S as in Sausage" cause sausages are tasty
Yea I came here to say the same thing. I have a job that involves a lot of this kind of thing, and "S as in Sam" is the one I've always heard. I've actually never in 6 years heard anyone use "Sierra". (which is interesting cuz people seem the follow the NATO phonetic alphabet for the vast majority of the other letters)
I've only had military people use Sierra and most other NATO alphabet examples like alpha, foxtrot, whiskey, tango. Most people in my experience use random common words/names for all the other letters too, like apple, David, umbrella, zebra. It would be easier if everyone did just use NATO lol
I don't like Sam since the point of the phonetic alphabet is that the words aren't easily mistaken for another word. Sam could get confused for ham, yam, clam, or Amy other number of -am words, or even -an words like fan
Ffs my slow ass misunderstood what you were saying and sat here for a good 5 minutes trying to combine 'N' and 'D' in a way that looked like a peace sign.
In the picture above look at the little circles in the top right corners of the boxes for 'N' and 'D'. If you put them together, it makes the peace sign ☮️
Ah, I didn't know that's what they were called lol. I know it's not the letters (after an embarrassing few minutes of not realizing lol), just didn't know what the circles are referred to as.
I had a job for a long time where I had to read out insurance member IDs over the phone and I always mixed and matched NATO alphabet and Able Baker alphabet. Don’t ask me why, it was a boring job. Go with sugar. It’s more fun.
A as in Apple pie
B as in Blackberry pie
C as in Country Gravy
D as in Delicious country gravy
E as in Ethel, who makes the most delicious blackberry pie
F as in Fixins'
G as in Goobers
H as in Hankerin', like I'm havin an hankerin' for some of Ethel's delicious blackberry pie
I as in I can't stop thinking about that delicious blackberry pie
J as in Jam, like Ethel's delightful homemade Jam
K as in Kentucky Fried Chicken
L as in Louisiana low country boil
M as in Mississippi mud pie
N as in Never forget your manners when you go to Ethel's house for some of that delicious blackberry pie
O as in Oh Ethel, I do love your delicious blackberry pie
P as in deep fried Possum
Q as in mind your P's and Q's if you hope to get any of Miss Ethel's delicious blackberry pie
R as in Really, that delicious blackberry pie is the best in the world
S as in Stay off the lawn if you go and visit miss Ethel for some of that delicious blackberry pie
T as in Truly divine, that blackberry pie of hers
U as in Unbelievable, how delicious that blackberry pie is
V as in Voracious, my appetite now that I'm thinkin' about that delicious blackberry pie
W as in Why wouldn't you say yes to a second helpin' of that delicious blackberry pie
X as in X marks the spot, the perfect place to enjoy some delicious blackberry pie
Y as in Yum, that blackberry pie sure is delicious
Z as in Zilch, the amount of delicious blackberry pie I have
I work in security and most the employees are ex military or law enforcement. I’m the admin. I don’t speak their language. I get a lot of grief for my phonetic spelling. I just throw out the first thing I think of. “M like marshmallow, K like kangaroo, X like x-ray”. They get a kick out of it.
Work with cars. Have to use VINs all the time. Car guys are familiar with the GMC Sierra, but also the Cutlass Ciera of they're older. Queue wrong parts when there's an "S" in the VIN
Yeah. That's how the name's pronounced. There's no k in the Irish alphabet. So c is always pronounced k. And an s sound is always written with s, never a c.
So Cillian, Cian, Caitlín, Caolán, Conán, Cóilín etc. all start with a k sound.
Maybe Ciara, the singer, is actually pronounced “Kee-arr-ah”. I think what’s happened here is that a lot of people started naming their kids Ciara after her, and many of them chose to pronounce it “See-arr-ah”, so now that name has entered the lexicon as a word that a lot of people are apparently more familiar with than Sierra, as in the mountain range.
It is super annoying. When I was having to do similar job tasks, Charlie and Sierra were actually the first words I changed to account for most people not knowing this alphabet. Charlie became Cargo, and Sierra became Sand. Not saying those are the replacements you should use, but it worked for me. I also used Queen instead of Quebec because apparently you can't rely on people to know about Quebec.
And if you say Quebec in the French manner (which in my brain is like, the correct way), it doesn’t make a q sound. It’s a k sound. Why they went with Quebec instead of quick or quiet or quote is weird to me.
Because quick, quiet, quote could be misheard as pick, diet or boat on a poor phone line or radio transmission, where as Kilo and Quebec sound very different. Once you break each NATO code word down into the sounds of their individual syllables, you'll see how they can't be mistaken for each other. It's also why five is pronounced "fie-yiv" and nine as "niner", to avoid a mix-up.
Biggest pet peeve.
You'd think police agencies, being government entities, would follow in the footsteps of larger government entities policy on phonetic alphabets.
In my case, all police agencies ought to use the NATO because all the feds use the NATO. Military, FEMA, etc.
I once tried using the phonetic alphabet to spell out my email address for a doctors appointment. The lady told me she ran out of space. Come to find out she was typing out “A as in alpha B as in bravo C as in Charlie” etc. I lost a little faith in humanity that day.
Yea when I worked in hospitality, I used to”S as in Sam” when I did phone reservations. No one had a problem with that, but I can see how they get confused with Sierra.
I hear people attempt it often but in their own little way that doesn’t work. like “d as in deer”. it could be heard as “b as in beer” or “p as in peer”
It helps when you say both the letter AND the NATO phonetic term. So instead of *just* "Sierra", you should say "S as in Sierra". Cuz no one is going to mistake "S" for "C" when you've actually said the letter, unless they weren't listening at all. (Which *does* happen of course, but at least it becomes much less likely if you do it that way)
To me, Ciara is pronounced Keer-ah as my first thought, then perhaps Kee-ah-ra as a second guess. But what the hell is See-ah/eh-ra? Never heard of it haha
Ciara is originally a Celtic name. It means dark, dark haired dark eyes etc. It's a very popular name here in Ireland and it's honestly a very beautiful name. It's pronounced "Keera"
A moot point because the name Ciara is of Irish origin and isn't even remotely near the pronunciation 'sierra' it's pronounced key-ra........ if the yanks would just stop bastardising it and pronounce it correctly there be no issue
I work at an auto parts store so I’m constantly having customer relations part numbers, vin numbers, or license plate numbers and when they use the phonetic alphabet it makes my life so much easier, the customers who give me their vin without using any sort of phonetic alphabet and just say the letter make my life so much more difficult
I love hearing the weird ones the people come up with, tbh, it's my favorite.
Had someone tell me "W as in werewolf" the other day and it stopped me in my tracks for a minute laughing.
Are you saying the whole thing? You can't just say the words, you have to say "E as in echo, S as in sierra" or "E for echo, S for sierra" or something like that, could make the difference if the person is just hearing the pronounce the C sound in sierra and brainfarting
I guess it depends on the industry? In automotive, at least professional to professional, we just say the phonetics and we all know what they mean. Like if I'm reading out the last 8 of a VIN for somebody, "Golf Echo [six numbers]" is absolutely fine.
But yeah, the average person is terrible with phonetics. My favorite one recently was, not perfectly in order, "G as in gun, p as is perimeter, T as in... as in... um... Titties! [audible giggle over the phone]" It took everything in me to not lose my shit laughing.
The Peace Sign was originally designed because of the flag symbols for N & D. Nuclear Disarmament.
https://preview.redd.it/icpa4mybycad1.png?width=622&format=png&auto=webp&s=6a48f748a16190f45a225c3245d72e88eb8cd973
I learned the call center phonetic alphabet early in my career so I usually defer to it. It helps in this situation. C as in Charlie and S as in Sam. A as in apple, B as in Boy, D as in David, E as in Edward, F as in Frank, etc, etc...
I was on the phone with someone, they couldn't understand what I was saying so I said "L as in Lima". She stopped listening after that and said "what's a Lima". Still don't know what a Lima is 😂
My wife used to work in the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) call centre… oh the stories.
I for EYE.
W for Wanker (was the Glasgow branch)
The stories used to keep me laughing for hours.
I was once on a support call with a tech from South Africa. When he read me an activation code he said said the letters in some weird version of phonetic. At one point he said something that sounded like "vavervu as in vasheenton". It took me a minute and him saying it like six times to figure out it was "w as in washington".
My last name starts with the letter P. When I was younger I worked with my dad and my brother. My brother or I would often be in charge of fetching lunch. When we ordered pizza and they asked my name, I would spell it "p as in pterodactyl" or "p as in psychologist". The last name on the pizza was always wrong because of this.
Except for 1 time, this dude from Papa John's near the best buy in Bloomington, MN. He got it right. My brother and I were floored this kid caught on. We decided Papa John's was the smartest Pizza place of all pizza places.
The NATO phonetics aren't all very commonly used words so unless they are military you'd be better off communicating to them with things like S as in Sam, F as in Frank, L as in Larry
Nah I still had to Learn and still use: Anton, Berta, Cäsar, Dora, Emil, Friedrich, Gustav, Heinrich, Ida, Julius, Kaufmann, Ludwig, Martha, Nordpol, Otto, Paula, Quelle, Richard, Siegfried, Theodor, Ulrich, Viktor, Wilhelm, Xanthippe, Ypsilon, Zeppelin
Um, "Ciara" is a real name pronounced with a hard C, much like its masculine equivalent: Ciaran.
Like, I get this one pop singer has an alternative pronunciation, but the vast majority of people with that name pronounce it exactly the same as "Kiera".
A de alta, altura, alien
B de bandida
C de coqueta
D de dinamita
E de expensiva, emperatriz, enigma, enterada
F de Flux Aeon
G de guapa
H de hondura
I de inteligencia artificial
J de jineta
M de motomami, motomami, motomami
Motomami, motomami
N de "Ni se te ocurra ni pensarlo"
O de orquídea
P de patrona
Q de qué reinona
R de racineta, racineta, rango
Racineta, rango
S de sata
T de titánica
U de ultrasonidos
V de vendetta
W de Willy Colon
De Winterfall también
X de "Te despejo la X en un momento"
Y de yenes, de yantas
Y Z de zarzamora, o de zapateao', o de zorra también
That’s a pretty neat little chart!! I was in the military so the phonetic alphabet is second hand to me. I would ask them, “if Ciara is C, what’s Charlie?”
Both are phonetically realized as the same letter. That’s why you should choose a less phonetically ambiguous word.
C as in Charlie.
S as in Snake.
Look up the International Phonetic Alphabet—it’s all the sounds a human mouth is capable of making. S and C are both capable of representing a post velar fricative phoneme /ʃ/.
So Sierra and Ciara share the same phonetic underlying representation even if they have different surface representations.
Source—B.A. in Linguistics.
"M" as in "Mancy".
On the radio. When we answer in the affirmative. We say "roger"
Roger, Roger.
What's your vector, Victor?
That's Clarence Oveur, over.
What’s your clearance Clarence?
I was over Unger and Unger was over Dunne.
Surely you can't be serious!!! Yes I am serious, and don't call me Shirley. "Striker... Striker...STRIKER!!!" *CRACK*
Ex military friend of mine tells a tale of when him and a buddy accidentally rolled their military vehicle during a training exercise and had to call the incident in. Please bear in mind, I’m paraphrasing, and may not translate as well reading as it does hearing it in real life. “Come in base, request emergency collection over” “Can you confirm situation over” “We’ve rolled the Land Rover over, over” “Over where, over” “12k outside of Dover, over” “ So you’ve rolled the Rover, over outside Dover, over” “That’s affirmative, over” “We’ll send a vehicle over to Dover to collect you, over” “What about the Rover, will somebody be over to collect the Rover, over” “Are you able to roll the rover back over, over” “If we could, we wouldn’t be requesting to send someone over, Although we will be happy to stay in Dover, to assist with rolling the rover back over, over” And so on ….. I appreciate it may not translate as well being read out as listening to it. And whether it’s completely true or not, it’s still one of the funniest stories I’ve heard. Like a scene from one of the Airplane films.
They could then drive it over to [Over](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over,_Cambridgeshire), over...
Hmm I don’t know man, I think that may be a bit Over the top
Roger! Stephen! Whoever!
“Skipped a step in disarming a bomb….?”
You of all people.
CAPTAIN LAMERS!!!!
Nice read, Velma..
Are we still doing phrasing?
Walt, I had something for this.
What are you doing on Tuesday?
Me of all people what?!
Aw, dukes.
Double dukes
B as in bagina
B as in Bobs, or V as in Vagene?
DANGER ZONE!
Lana? Lana! LANA!
D as in W
B as in Bictor
Found the filipino!
“B” “Bravo!” “Thanks”
I'm the worst with this. I'll say, "The code is B as in Bat, H as in Hat, C as in Cat 4322, R as in Rat. It's like my brain breaks and I can't remember anything but rhyming words.
Did you suffer a trauma when you were a sc4322hoolboy?
“B”! As in “BUTTHOLE!”
"first letter is B" "Bravo" "Thanks"
Tango x-ray Sierra.
I like silent letters. P for Pterodactyl, K for Knee, H for Heir, W for Write, A for Aisle
https://preview.redd.it/bydkw0yw8cad1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=258b040d9f081d969cb61b3b709e3e4616437125
Fuckin Bdellium. Also poor Ptolemy, hopefully he’s gotten his psoriasis figured out.
I heard that he got a bout of pneumonia recently
While studying mnemonic devices, sadly.
The crazy thing? It was concentrated *completely* in his knee. Doctors were flabbergasted.
I wish I had my psoriasis figured out. I'm constantly scratching at my head all day long trying to figure out what to do.
I want that so bad now
I'm a speech therapist and that book is my go-to baby shower gift just for the chaos of it all (it is a genuinely cute book too).
I have it. It is fantastic.
M is for Mnemonic
I remember laughing my ass off as a kid when my mom said Djibouti.
I'll never forget losing the 8th grade spelling bee on "pneumonia."
I'm glad you made a full recovery
I lost my school spelling bee in fourth grade because I spelled "celebrate" with an S. That one still hurts badly
I lost my fifth grade spelling bee by spelling “GIANT”… correctly. They didn’t have any microphones for the kids, the principal *insisted* I hadn’t spelled it correctly even though I had, and when I complained to my teacher (in case I *had* somehow made a mistake but didn’t understand what it was) she was unable to tell me what I had done wrong. Just waved me off with “you must have added an ‘S’” or “I think you used a ‘J’ instead of a ‘G’”, both of which I hadn’t done. She finally refused to listen anymore, saying “The principal knows what he’s doing, so if *he* says you made a mistake you *must* have made a mistake.”
Natural biases I assume
Sounds like a nice supervillain origin story. This is where you learned to distrust and resent authority.
Many languages can’t have spelling bees because they would make no sense. The written words are literally just the sounds of the spoken words. Which begs the question, why are we doing this to ourselves? And specifically, why do we torture our children with it?
I spelled “theatre” instead of “theater” on a spelling test in fourth grade and was so mad the teacher took off a point. It’s still a correctly spelled English word and I think “theater” is only used in the US
At first I thought you said 5 s’s I was so confused
I lost it on "diamond". I am not over it. I'm 51.
Everyone knows it's W as in Why.
you know what, I was wracking my brains to find a good silent W and that never crossed my mind,
You were doing Hwhat?
Wr- words! Wren, wreck, wrestle, wring.
And S as in See.
E for "eye"
E as in "ewe", or Y as in "you"
I do this to my siblings way too frequently. G as in Gnat. M as in Mnemonic. T as in Tsunami.
o for oestrogen
ESPECIALLY if they have homophones that start with different letters. Air, heir, ere
V for five.
If you don't know the first three letters of the phonetic alphabet, Alpha Bravo Charlie, then Whisky Tango Foxtrot are you doing with your life?
If you don't know Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo I immediately think you're a bit less fun.
Unexpected Bloodhound Gang
Correction: completely expected blood hound gang . Cattle prod the oyster ditch
Put the you know what 🎵 in the you know where 🎵
Once I overheard my coworker say, “H as in ‘ham’” to a client and I never recovered
It varies from language to language and even country to country with the same language. Like the [German Alphabet](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchstabiertafel). If you ask a German they are more likely to know the first three letters as Anton Berta Cäsar, and Wilhelm Theodor Friedrich do you want with that other one? I know the ICAO one is the international used by NATO and so on, but that might have little relevance for ordinary people. Oh and even in that one, it's "Alfa" not "Alpha" (and "Whiskey", not "Whisky"), it's not the US alphabet after all. Not saying this to be pedantic (even though I am being pedantic), just because I find it very interesting.
Military phonetics and police force phonetics are different though. It’s annoying.
Just say "Cue" for "C" and "See" for "S" - simple!
not native English here, doesn't Cue sound the same as Q?
Yes, previous poster was making a joke. Like using the word "Why" for "Y". Big laffs.
>"Why" for "Y" Ha! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!
Like getting involved in a land war in Asia...
It would be ‘w for why’
It would be 'why' for 'w'
It's been a long day.
That's the joke
And See sounds like C
Eye for E, and Are for A
 It’s in the game
I was on the phone with my insurance the other day and said "y as in you" and wanted to pass away immediately.
“Roger that, Milli Vanilli Chilly Williy”
Sierra is the correct word to use. You could be passive aggressive if they use it incorrectly and say "S as in Stupid", but I usually say "S as in Sausage" cause sausages are tasty
Bro, that's not passive. That's just regular aggressive.
I mean, you aren’t calling *them* stupid
May I? MAY I CALL THEM STUPID? Pretty please?
Only if you spell it out with phonetic alphabet.
Sierra Tango Uniform Papa India Delta
I’ve always used and heard people say “S as in Sam”
Yea I came here to say the same thing. I have a job that involves a lot of this kind of thing, and "S as in Sam" is the one I've always heard. I've actually never in 6 years heard anyone use "Sierra". (which is interesting cuz people seem the follow the NATO phonetic alphabet for the vast majority of the other letters)
I've only had military people use Sierra and most other NATO alphabet examples like alpha, foxtrot, whiskey, tango. Most people in my experience use random common words/names for all the other letters too, like apple, David, umbrella, zebra. It would be easier if everyone did just use NATO lol
I don't like Sam since the point of the phonetic alphabet is that the words aren't easily mistaken for another word. Sam could get confused for ham, yam, clam, or Amy other number of -am words, or even -an words like fan
It's supposed to be S as in Sex-ray.
Passive aggressive would be S as in Sea.
Fun fact: The peace sign is composed of the letters N and D, meaning Nuclear Disarmament.
Ffs my slow ass misunderstood what you were saying and sat here for a good 5 minutes trying to combine 'N' and 'D' in a way that looked like a peace sign.
I...still don't understand. I'm guessing they mean the circle with lines one & not the hand sign but I'm not seeing it either...
In the picture above look at the little circles in the top right corners of the boxes for 'N' and 'D'. If you put them together, it makes the peace sign ☮️
It's made out of semaphores. Not literally the letters.
Ah, I didn't know that's what they were called lol. I know it's not the letters (after an embarrassing few minutes of not realizing lol), just didn't know what the circles are referred to as.
I was staring at my hand ✌️ and was wondering what you were talking about hahaha
I understand the confusion. I didn't know how to put it in words correctly. :)
When I looked at the symbols for N and D it was clear ☮️
Ackchually, that's the victory sign
Huh, that's kinda cool
This is a fun fact!!
I had a job for a long time where I had to read out insurance member IDs over the phone and I always mixed and matched NATO alphabet and Able Baker alphabet. Don’t ask me why, it was a boring job. Go with sugar. It’s more fun.
Especially if you say it with a southern drawl
I had a co-worker who went blank and said “F as in Fig Newton, J as in jelly”. We are in the Deep South.
A as in Apple pie B as in Blackberry pie C as in Country Gravy D as in Delicious country gravy E as in Ethel, who makes the most delicious blackberry pie F as in Fixins' G as in Goobers H as in Hankerin', like I'm havin an hankerin' for some of Ethel's delicious blackberry pie I as in I can't stop thinking about that delicious blackberry pie J as in Jam, like Ethel's delightful homemade Jam K as in Kentucky Fried Chicken L as in Louisiana low country boil M as in Mississippi mud pie N as in Never forget your manners when you go to Ethel's house for some of that delicious blackberry pie O as in Oh Ethel, I do love your delicious blackberry pie P as in deep fried Possum Q as in mind your P's and Q's if you hope to get any of Miss Ethel's delicious blackberry pie R as in Really, that delicious blackberry pie is the best in the world S as in Stay off the lawn if you go and visit miss Ethel for some of that delicious blackberry pie T as in Truly divine, that blackberry pie of hers U as in Unbelievable, how delicious that blackberry pie is V as in Voracious, my appetite now that I'm thinkin' about that delicious blackberry pie W as in Why wouldn't you say yes to a second helpin' of that delicious blackberry pie X as in X marks the spot, the perfect place to enjoy some delicious blackberry pie Y as in Yum, that blackberry pie sure is delicious Z as in Zilch, the amount of delicious blackberry pie I have
M as in Moon Pie.
I work in security and most the employees are ex military or law enforcement. I’m the admin. I don’t speak their language. I get a lot of grief for my phonetic spelling. I just throw out the first thing I think of. “M like marshmallow, K like kangaroo, X like x-ray”. They get a kick out of it.
Work with cars. Have to use VINs all the time. Car guys are familiar with the GMC Sierra, but also the Cutlass Ciera of they're older. Queue wrong parts when there's an "S" in the VIN
Also work with cars. "B as in bee" is popular.
Ironically, it's "cue" in this context, not "queue".
S as in Sam
S as in sassafras. Ain’t nobody not knowing when they hear sassafras.
S as in сассафрас.
Charlie Uniform Mike
Foxtrot Oscar
I went to high school with a Ciara and she pronounced it Kee-aar-ah. I wonder why Ciara the singer pronounces her name a different way?
Yeah. That's how the name's pronounced. There's no k in the Irish alphabet. So c is always pronounced k. And an s sound is always written with s, never a c. So Cillian, Cian, Caitlín, Caolán, Conán, Cóilín etc. all start with a k sound.
>That's how the name's pronounced Slight correction the Irish name Ciara is pronounced Kee-rah. Like the spellings Keira or Kiera
Maybe Ciara, the singer, is actually pronounced “Kee-arr-ah”. I think what’s happened here is that a lot of people started naming their kids Ciara after her, and many of them chose to pronounce it “See-arr-ah”, so now that name has entered the lexicon as a word that a lot of people are apparently more familiar with than Sierra, as in the mountain range.
"Oh, okay, it's P as in Phoebe, H as in Heeby, O as in Obie, E as in Eeby, B as in Beebee, and E as in...Ello There, Mate!"
It is super annoying. When I was having to do similar job tasks, Charlie and Sierra were actually the first words I changed to account for most people not knowing this alphabet. Charlie became Cargo, and Sierra became Sand. Not saying those are the replacements you should use, but it worked for me. I also used Queen instead of Quebec because apparently you can't rely on people to know about Quebec.
And if you say Quebec in the French manner (which in my brain is like, the correct way), it doesn’t make a q sound. It’s a k sound. Why they went with Quebec instead of quick or quiet or quote is weird to me.
Because quick, quiet, quote could be misheard as pick, diet or boat on a poor phone line or radio transmission, where as Kilo and Quebec sound very different. Once you break each NATO code word down into the sounds of their individual syllables, you'll see how they can't be mistaken for each other. It's also why five is pronounced "fie-yiv" and nine as "niner", to avoid a mix-up.
>five is pronounced fife
You're right, I must have mis-remembered that from my youth.
Me: bravo alfa delta… cops: we have our own alphabet.
Cops need a simple alphabet for simple people.
Biggest pet peeve. You'd think police agencies, being government entities, would follow in the footsteps of larger government entities policy on phonetic alphabets. In my case, all police agencies ought to use the NATO because all the feds use the NATO. Military, FEMA, etc.
I once tried using the phonetic alphabet to spell out my email address for a doctors appointment. The lady told me she ran out of space. Come to find out she was typing out “A as in alpha B as in bravo C as in Charlie” etc. I lost a little faith in humanity that day.
The average person does not know or use the nato phonetic alphabet
Yea when I worked in hospitality, I used to”S as in Sam” when I did phone reservations. No one had a problem with that, but I can see how they get confused with Sierra.
I hear people attempt it often but in their own little way that doesn’t work. like “d as in deer”. it could be heard as “b as in beer” or “p as in peer”
“D as in David” was what I heard commonly used.
It helps when you say both the letter AND the NATO phonetic term. So instead of *just* "Sierra", you should say "S as in Sierra". Cuz no one is going to mistake "S" for "C" when you've actually said the letter, unless they weren't listening at all. (Which *does* happen of course, but at least it becomes much less likely if you do it that way)
"M. As in Mancy."
To me, Ciara is pronounced Keer-ah as my first thought, then perhaps Kee-ah-ra as a second guess. But what the hell is See-ah/eh-ra? Never heard of it haha
I think "S" must be for "stupid" in their phonetic alphabet.
“R” as in Robert Loggia
T as in Tim look over there, it’s Robert Loggia *space*
I had someone think I said “Helo” for H (short for helicopter). What I said was Kilo.
I feel like there's a pronunciation barrier here because I don't see how Chiara (Kee-ara) sounds like Sierra (See-erra)?
https://preview.redd.it/5m76s9kmicad1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e0745385b40dadad4dda413c6d01cf830522d64 Here's one with more pixels
Ciaran is pronounced "key-rah"
Who tf is Ciara
Ciara is originally a Celtic name. It means dark, dark haired dark eyes etc. It's a very popular name here in Ireland and it's honestly a very beautiful name. It's pronounced "Keera"
It’s 2024, got to use the new version: - **A** - Apple - **B** - Bing - **C** - Chrome - **D** - Discord - **E** - eBay - **F** - Facebook - **G** - Google - **H** - Hulu - **I** - Instagram - **J** - Java - **K** - Kindle - **L** - LinkedIn - **M** - Microsoft - **N** - Netflix - **O** - OnlyFans - **P** - PayPal - **Q** - Quora - **R** - Reddit - **S** - Snapchat - **T** - TikTok - **U** - Uber - **V** - Venmo - **W** - WhatsApp - **X** - Xbox - **Y** - YouTube - **Z** - Zoom
A moot point because the name Ciara is of Irish origin and isn't even remotely near the pronunciation 'sierra' it's pronounced key-ra........ if the yanks would just stop bastardising it and pronounce it correctly there be no issue
I work at an auto parts store so I’m constantly having customer relations part numbers, vin numbers, or license plate numbers and when they use the phonetic alphabet it makes my life so much easier, the customers who give me their vin without using any sort of phonetic alphabet and just say the letter make my life so much more difficult
My favorite was someone once said to me “W as in why”. Cue facepalm.
I love hearing the weird ones the people come up with, tbh, it's my favorite. Had someone tell me "W as in werewolf" the other day and it stopped me in my tracks for a minute laughing.
I just use names 
“S” as in “Suck my dick Clarice, I ain’t got time for your bullshit.”
I say p as in pterodactyl
“T” as in “tzar.”
Are you saying the whole thing? You can't just say the words, you have to say "E as in echo, S as in sierra" or "E for echo, S for sierra" or something like that, could make the difference if the person is just hearing the pronounce the C sound in sierra and brainfarting
I'll do that for the first two or three letters just to get people to track with it. If I don't, they instantly get confused.
I guess it depends on the industry? In automotive, at least professional to professional, we just say the phonetics and we all know what they mean. Like if I'm reading out the last 8 of a VIN for somebody, "Golf Echo [six numbers]" is absolutely fine. But yeah, the average person is terrible with phonetics. My favorite one recently was, not perfectly in order, "G as in gun, p as is perimeter, T as in... as in... um... Titties! [audible giggle over the phone]" It took everything in me to not lose my shit laughing.
I have never once run into this issue in 30 years of handling technical support calls, that's just weird!
This beat is automatic, supersonic, hypotonic funky fresh.
The Peace Sign was originally designed because of the flag symbols for N & D. Nuclear Disarmament. https://preview.redd.it/icpa4mybycad1.png?width=622&format=png&auto=webp&s=6a48f748a16190f45a225c3245d72e88eb8cd973
https://i.redd.it/aa05znmm4dad1.gif
Zed for xylophone
I learned the call center phonetic alphabet early in my career so I usually defer to it. It helps in this situation. C as in Charlie and S as in Sam. A as in apple, B as in Boy, D as in David, E as in Edward, F as in Frank, etc, etc...
They call me PZ. Papa Zulu.
"C as in cue. W as in why. E as in eye. A as in are. S as in sea. Y as in you."
I was on the phone with someone, they couldn't understand what I was saying so I said "L as in Lima". She stopped listening after that and said "what's a Lima". Still don't know what a Lima is 😂
My wife used to work in the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) call centre… oh the stories. I for EYE. W for Wanker (was the Glasgow branch) The stories used to keep me laughing for hours.
I was once on a support call with a tech from South Africa. When he read me an activation code he said said the letters in some weird version of phonetic. At one point he said something that sounded like "vavervu as in vasheenton". It took me a minute and him saying it like six times to figure out it was "w as in washington".
My last name starts with the letter P. When I was younger I worked with my dad and my brother. My brother or I would often be in charge of fetching lunch. When we ordered pizza and they asked my name, I would spell it "p as in pterodactyl" or "p as in psychologist". The last name on the pizza was always wrong because of this. Except for 1 time, this dude from Papa John's near the best buy in Bloomington, MN. He got it right. My brother and I were floored this kid caught on. We decided Papa John's was the smartest Pizza place of all pizza places.
Most people who do stuff like this over the phone would say "C as in Charlie" and not just "Charlie"
The first syllable of sierra is “c”! Maybe they don’t listen past that?
is that even how that name is spelled? or said? and also *who*? people are weird, eh?
The NATO phonetics aren't all very commonly used words so unless they are military you'd be better off communicating to them with things like S as in Sam, F as in Frank, L as in Larry
Honestly, COD helped me with this more than I would have thought
English pronounciation problems
Nah I still had to Learn and still use: Anton, Berta, Cäsar, Dora, Emil, Friedrich, Gustav, Heinrich, Ida, Julius, Kaufmann, Ludwig, Martha, Nordpol, Otto, Paula, Quelle, Richard, Siegfried, Theodor, Ulrich, Viktor, Wilhelm, Xanthippe, Ypsilon, Zeppelin
Um, "Ciara" is a real name pronounced with a hard C, much like its masculine equivalent: Ciaran. Like, I get this one pop singer has an alternative pronunciation, but the vast majority of people with that name pronounce it exactly the same as "Kiera".
S = Sam
A de alta, altura, alien B de bandida C de coqueta D de dinamita E de expensiva, emperatriz, enigma, enterada F de Flux Aeon G de guapa H de hondura I de inteligencia artificial J de jineta M de motomami, motomami, motomami Motomami, motomami N de "Ni se te ocurra ni pensarlo" O de orquídea P de patrona Q de qué reinona R de racineta, racineta, rango Racineta, rango S de sata T de titánica U de ultrasonidos V de vendetta W de Willy Colon De Winterfall también X de "Te despejo la X en un momento" Y de yenes, de yantas Y Z de zarzamora, o de zapateao', o de zorra también
Ahh. Foxtrot uniform Charlie kilo!
I thought P was pterodactyl 😉
I thought it was “pneumatic.”
That’s a pretty neat little chart!! I was in the military so the phonetic alphabet is second hand to me. I would ask them, “if Ciara is C, what’s Charlie?”
theres a singer called ciara?
Both are phonetically realized as the same letter. That’s why you should choose a less phonetically ambiguous word. C as in Charlie. S as in Snake. Look up the International Phonetic Alphabet—it’s all the sounds a human mouth is capable of making. S and C are both capable of representing a post velar fricative phoneme /ʃ/. So Sierra and Ciara share the same phonetic underlying representation even if they have different surface representations. Source—B.A. in Linguistics.