Australian Phonetic Alphabet

Quick Overview

It can be easy to mishear words over the telephone, but using a phonetic alphabet with words familiar to your Australian audience can reduce confusion, for example:

A is for Australia
B is for Bruce
C is for Crikey

This article includes the full Australian phonetic alphabet for you to use.

What Is the Australian Phonetic Alphabet?

The Australian Phonetic Alphabet is a way of spelling out letters that can be easily misheard over the telephone.

A classic example of this is how names can be confused. For example, the name “Mickey” sounds very much like “Nicky”. Even asking for clarification can complicate things here, because if you say; “Is that Mickey with an M?”, it still sounds very similar to “Is that Nicky with a N?”

To get around this, the Australian Phonetic Alphabet was developed, and letters are spelled out as words. Hence, A for Australia, B for Bruce, C for Crikey…

You can find the full Australian Phonetic Alphabet below for reference and to share with your teams:

Letter	Word
A	Australia
B	Bruce
C	Crikey
D	Dunny
E	Emu
F	Footie
G	G’Day
H	Hotel
I	Iffy
J	Jellyfish
K	Kangaroo
L	Lyrebird
M	Melbourne
N	Nemo
O	Outback
P	Perth OR Platypus
Q	Queensland
R	Roo
S	Sheila
T	Tinny
U	Uluru
V	Victoria
W	Wombat
X	X-Ray
Y	Yabby
Z	Zulu