Much like the letters em and en themselves, the em-dash and en-dash are often mixed up. The name of the punctuation mark comes from the fact that it is the width of the letter M when printed. The spelling of the letter M, em, can be found in the name of the punctuation mark em dash (-). However, it is also the spelling for the letter L. L – elĮl is most easily recognizable as the common abbreviation for elevated railroad. Okay is a unique Americanism that you can read more about here. Just like in okay, K is typically spelled k-a-y. You may already be familiar with the spelling of the letter K from the expression okay, or OK. Like C, the spelling jay can be useful when describing something in the shape of the letter. The letter J has a long and complicated history-it began as a swash, a typographical embellishment for the already existing I-but its spelling is relatively straightforward: jay. The letter comes from Northern Semitic languages and its modern corollary is the Hebrew letter heth. It is spelled aitch, but the pronunciation of its name is. The letter H has a tricky spelling and pronunciation.

Have you met these two extinct alphabet letters? Take a look! H – aitch Particularly in American slang, the spelled out name gee is used as an abbreviation for grand, in the sense of “thousand dollars.” With the exception of ef, the letter G is spelled like the other letters we have seen so far: gee. The spelled out name ef is occasionally used as an abbreviation for much saltier language. Like the letter B, dee originally had another name in the Phoenician alphabet: daleth. Like B and C, the letter D is spelled out with -ee: d-e-e. You might be picking up on a pattern here. The spelling cee might come in handy especially when writing about something “shaped or formed like the letter C,” as in she was curled in a cee, holding her pillow. It isn’t spelled with an S but a C: c-e-e. The spelling of the letter C might surprise you. Before it was bee, the letter B was part of the Phoenician alphabet and was known as beth. The plural is bees, like something you might find in a hive. The letter B is spelled just like the insect: b-e-e. If you’ve always minded your p’s and q’s and know your letters to a tee, then you should head over to our quiz on how the letters of the alphabet are spelled. If you’re ready to start doing some real work on your spoken English and listening comprehension, check out my book at /book or my online school and courses at RachelsEnglishAcademy.🖋 Will our quiz on spelling spell victory for you? Subscribe to my YouTube channel and sign up for my mailing list, both free, to keep up on the weekly lessons. I make a new video every week to help non-native English speakers communicate better in English.

If you want a free mp3 download of these letter names, visit /alphabet Using these specific words for letters will help increase your understandability on the phone. It’s Y as in Yankee, U as in Uniform, L as in Lima, P as in Papa, C as in Charlie, X as in X-ray. Luckily, by the time I had to give another confirmation number, I had looked them up. I was in the process of making this video, but I hadn’t yet memorized all of the right letter names. Just the other day, I found myself needing to give a confirmation number over the phone. Or you can just say the word: Romeo, Alpha, Charlie, Hotel, Echo, Lima. So if someone asks you to spell your name, you can say: R as in Romeo, A as in Alpha, C as in Charlie, H as in Hotel, E as in Echo, L as in Lima. So no matter what your accent is, you’ll probably be understood using this alphabet system. Apparently the letters were chosen for understandability based on hundreds of thousands of comprehension tests involving 31 nationalities. A system was developed in the 1950s by the International Civil Aviation Organization to put a word with each letter.

So many misunderstandings can happen when spelling. Why? I think it’s because unvoiced sounds like SS and TH don’t carry well over the phone.Īnd we have so many letter names that rhyme: B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V, Z, or A, J, K, or I, W

But even though it’s so common, often, over the phone, people don’t understand me. Smith is the most common last name in the United States. So, there is a specific set of words corresponding to each letter of the alphabet to make spelling over the phone much easier. Letter names, over the phone can be unclear and hard to distinguish, and not just for non-native speakers. Have you ever noticed, when you’re on the phone, that you often need to spell things out? Your name, for example, or maybe the name of the street you live on. Tagged With: phone YouTube blocked? Click here to see the video. Learn the target words in the NATO phonetic alphabet to make spelling out names, address, confirmation numbers, and more much easier.

Spell alphabet in english