K as in knife

October 12th, 2006 by mgkimsal Leave a reply »

My last name starts with a K, so whenever I’ve spelled out my name for people on the phone I’ve said “K, as in ‘knife’”. I’ve done this for years, almost without thinking. I was initially inspired by Inspector Clouseau in the first Pink Panther movie, where he was spelling something with a ‘J’, and he said ‘J, as in ‘jalapeno’”.

Anyway, years ago I started to put together a list of words with confusing/ambiguous first letters. One of the guys at work lent a hand and we nearly completed a list you can use for yourself. He brought in more of the foreign words, and helped in a few tough spots too. I think there’s still a couple with this list that need to be done or improved on, but I figured I’d post it here as my little public service. Feel free to use this next time you’re on the phone with someone needing to spell something!

  • a as in aisle (or aye)
  • b as in bdellium
  • c as in czar
  • d as in djibouti
  • e as in eight
  • f as in fjord
  • g as in gnaw
  • h as in herb
  • i as in isle (ioan was recommended but I’m split on this one)
  • j as in jalepeno
  • k as in knife
  • l as in Lladro (llano was another suggested alternate)
  • m as in mnemonic
  • n as in Nguyen (or ngwee)
  • o as in oestrogen
  • p as in pneumatic
  • q as in queue (or quay – pronounced ‘kay’)
  • r as in ????
  • s as in scene (or sea)
  • t as in tao (pronounced with the ‘t’ as a ‘d’)
  • u as in uakari
  • v as in “Five” (as in the roman numeral five – yes, a bit weak, but still gives the level of confusion suitable for phone conversations)
  • w as in wrench (or ‘why’)
  • x as in xenon
  • y as in yttrium (Yvonne might work better for the phone?)
  • z as in ????????

After I put this together, I did discover this other site which has a similiar list, with multiple options for each letter. The original purpose was slightly different that mine (confusing librarians, I believe) but you may still find this useful too!

Share and Enjoy:
  • del.icio.us
  • DZone
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • Simpy
  • Technorati
Advertisement

7 comments

  1. Brian says:

    You should listen to the “Telephone Operator” sketch from the early 1960′s by Mike Nichols and Elaine May….
    That is where “K” as in knife is from.

  2. mgkimsal says:

    thanks brian! Any idea where i might find that? Is there a particular album name that’s from?

  3. cliff1976 says:

    How about: “‘R’ as in ‘Arithmetic’?”

  4. mgkimsal says:

    not bad :)

    ‘rithmatic :)

  5. johann liebert says:

    how about f for effort

Trackbacks /
Pingbacks

  1. grahame.com

Leave a Reply