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 ????????

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