Phonetic Alphabet

[Graham & Brenda]

In English we have Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo etc. The only French equivalent I have found so far uses names - anatole, bernard, c'ecile, denise, 'emile etc.

Is this common/correct or are there other recognised lists?

I needed to use this when discussing on the 'phone a hotel's entry code. I can't remeber the word she used for "Y" but it was not yvonne.

Thanks,

Graham

[opas]

LAST EDITED ON 27-Mar-04 AT 05:20 PM (GMT)

As far as I am aware....and I am sure someone will correct me if wrong, the phonetic alphabet is international,it was used over the VHF during our sailing days in Greece ,Italy,Turkey and malta and infact him indoors used it over the `phone the other day to ASSEDIC

[letrangere]

Graham,

The only list I'm aware of is the same one that you refer to, ie using first names (Anatole, Berthe, Celestin - apologies for lack of accents). I don't know where I got mine from originally but the copy I have starts by saying, "Ce code, donne par l'administration des P. et T...." so it must be official. Actually, for those not familiar with it, the list of names makes interesting reading:

Anatole, Berthe, Celestin, Desire, Eugene, Emile, Francois, Gaston, Henri, Irma, Joseph, Kleber, Louis, Marcel, Nicolas, Oscar, Pierre, Quintal (anyone know one of those?), Raoul, Suzanne, Therese, Ursule, Victor, William, Xavier, Yvonne et Zoe.

Margaret
(who has always felt her family name was bad enough in English but in French? doobler-vay, ee-grek, en, en, er, tiret, zhee, oh, en, er, ess)