Forum: english.stackexchange.com
Tags: <vocabulary><speech><alphabet>
Title: What are the conventional words for characters (A-Z)?
Question: I have just read  the newest post of DOGHOUSEDIARIES , and I am wondering whether the words for characters are fixed in the USA or the UK, as I am not a native English speaker.  For example:   A  as in  apple

Answers:
sents: text: The closest thing might be the NATO Phonetic Alphabet . AlphaBravoCharlieDeltaEchoFoxtrotGolfHotelIndiaJulietKiloLimaMikeNovemberOscarPapaQuebecRomeoSierraTangoUniformVictorWhiskeyXrayYankeeZulu
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/588/Ed Guiness
score: 28
sents: text: If you mean the names as we learn them in school, then they're very rarely written down (so I'm effectively inventing these spellings), but they would (in British English) be:
text: Ay
text: /eɪ/ Bee /biː/ See
text: /siː/ Dee /diː/
text: Ee
text: /iː/ Eff /ɛf/
text: Gee /dʒiː/ Aitch /eɪtʃ/
text: — sometimes pre-aspirated as Haitch /heɪtʃ/, though this is considered incorrect in RP Eye /aɪ/
text: Jay
text: /dʒeɪ/
text: Kay /keɪ/ Ell /ɛl/
text: Em /ɛm/
text: En /ɛn/
text: Oh /oʊ/ or /əʊ/ Pee /piː/ Queue /kj(ə)uː/
text: Ar
text: /ɑː/ — with varying degrees of rhotacism
text: ; I grew up in the West Country, so say /ɑʵː/
text: Ess /ɛs/ Tee /tiː/
text: You /j(ə)uː/ Vee /viː/
text: Double-you /ˈdəb(ʉ)l.j(ə)uː/ Ex /ɛks/
text: Why /waɪ/
text: Zed /zɛd/
text: I get what you mean by asking about a is for apple ; whilst I'm sure I was taught something like that when first learning to read, it has been so infrequently used since then
text: (I'm now 35)
text: that I honestly couldn't tell you what they were.
text: The letter names above, though, are how I would spell out my name to someone unfamiliar with it, for example.
text: The Nato Phonetic Alphabet ( Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and so on) would be familiar to some, but not to all — my mother would probably think me pretentious for using it.
text: But that is what our police would use to provide clear, unambiguous details of a car number plate over the radio, for example.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/9547/Owen Blacker
score: 5
sents: text: I think a conventional alphabet that starts with "A is in Apple" is the one form esl.about.com .
text: The purpose is to illustrate a prototypical word starting with each letter for pedagogical purposes (not necessarily to make the pronunciation of the letters distinct like a phonetic alphabet).
text: That list says: A as in "apple" B as in "boy" C as in "car" D as in "dog" E as in "ear" F as in "flag" G as in "great" H as in "house" I as in "insect" J as in "joy" K as in "kind" L as in "light" M as in "magic" N as in "night" O as in "orchestra" P as in "people" Q as in "question" R as in "red" S as in "sure" T as in "truck" U as in "unique" V as in "video" W as in "wow" X as in "xerox" ("xylophone" is also often used here) Y as in "yes" Z as in "zebra"
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/4516/Ken Bloom
score: 3
sents: text: Bill posted a link to the law enforcement phonetic alphabet, namely.
text: Here the idea is to make each letters word have a distinct sound.
text: A as in Adam B as in Boy C as in Charlie D as in David E as in Edward F as in Frank G as in George H as in Henry
text: I as in Ida J as in John K as in King L as in Lincoln M as in Mary N as in Nora O as in Ocean P as in Paul Q as in Queen R as in Robert S as in Sam T as in Tom U as in Union V as in Victor W as in William
text: X as in X-ray Y as in Young Z as in Zebra
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/4516/Ken Bloom
score: 2
sents: text: The authors of children's books make a living constructing and publishing lists of interesting words for characters.
text: For example, Sesame Street ABC Flash Cards There are others on Amazon — search for Dr Seuss' ABC, An amazing alphabet book! and Thomas' ABC book .
text: These books, and many more like them help children connect writing to the sound of nouns, a cornerstone of learning any language.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/4512/Charles Lindsay
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
There does not appear to be an agreed set of words for each of the letters of the alphabet and authors of children's books have made a living publishing lists of interesting words for characters, such as Sesame Street ABC Flash Cards. The closest thing to an established set of words might be the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, but this is used to provide clear, unambiguous details.
The closest thing to a standard would be the NATO Phonetic Alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie), which uses words starting with those letters. Children's books introducing the alphabet associate letters with common nouns, but generally do not teach pronunciation of the letters themselves. These letters would be pronounced according to regional dialects.
There are several different conventional words for the letters of the alphabet. One of them being the NATO Phonetic Alphabet .  AlphaBravoCharlieDeltaEchoFoxtrotGolfHotelIndiaJulietKiloLimaMikeNovemberOscarPapaQuebecRomeoSierraTangoUniformVictorWhiskeyXrayYankeeZulu.  However there is another version A as in "apple" B as in "boy" C as in "car" D as in "dog" E as in "ear" F as in "flag" G as in "great" H as in "house" I as in "insect" J as in "joy" K as in "kind" L as in "light" M as in "magic" N as in "night" O as in "orchestra" P as in "people" Q as in "question" R as in "red" S as in "sure" T as in "truck" U as in "unique" V as in "video" W as in "wow" X as in "xerox" ("xylophone" is also often used here) Y as in "yes" Z as in "zebra"
There is no fixed phonetic alphabet in English, but a very commonly understood one is the Nato Phonetic Alphabet, which runs as follows: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, Xray, Yankee, Zulu.