To help eliminate confusion, some numbers are pronounced differently, and some words are avoided altogether. Pilots and air traffic controllers say niner instead of nine to distinguish it from other numbers.
Radio transmissions may not be crystal clear, and with any disturbances on the frequency, nine could be easily confused with five, given they are one-syllable and rhyme. Niner, however, cannot be confused with any other number. It would be easy to stop the discussion here, but Aviation English is full of examples of strange pronunciations and oddities.
The phonetic alphabet, certain keywords, and phrases are all part of what needs to be learnt when becoming involved in the aviation industry.
Aviation English is a key component of minimizing misunderstandings, and we touched on the topic of why much of the phraseology in aviation is done in English in this article. Numbers are essential for communication and aviation, ranging from altitudes and flight levels, velocities, headings, frequencies and runway directions, weather-related information, etc.
The list goes on and on! This is normally vital information and an error can lead to catastrophic consequences for example a pilot may climb or descends to an incorrect level. Below is a list of how pilots and air traffic controllers pronounce the numbers zero to ten:. Most numbers are pronounced more or less as you would expect, but there are four, maybe five, big exceptions. The numbers 4 and 7 are the least changed in terms or pronunciation , with just a slight emphasis on the end of the words.
The number 9 is the most changed, and the similarly-pronounced 5 is changed as well. It is amazing how often, in my time as an air traffic controller, pilots and ATCOs will confuse a three with a two and vice-versa, even when pronouncing the words correctly.
Two and three is by far the most confused pair of numbers in my 14 years of experience and you would not expect that to be the case. The digit 3 is specified as tree so that it is not pronounced sri ; the long pronunciation of 4 still found in some English dialects keeps it somewhat distinct from for ; 5 is pronounced with a second "f" because the normal pronunciation with a "v" is easily confused with "fire" a command to shoot ; and 9 has an extra syllable to keep it distinct from German nein 'no'.
The phonetic alphabet is not a random selection of words. It was created very carefully taking dialects into account, so as not to confuse any of the letter with possible mispronunciations. Although they are "English" words, the choices were made with the world in mind. As mentioned on the same article :. The final choice of code words for the letters of the alphabet and for the digits was made after hundreds of thousands of comprehension tests involving 31 nationalities.
Tree is better pronounced and better understood by all people, regardless of accent. On a poorly heard transmission "Five" can sound a lot like "Fire", which is both a military command to "shoot", and an aviation emergency! To keep it clear that this is a digit and not a negative-reply, "Niner" is distinct from the "Nine".
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The variations stemmed from a desire to avoid confusion between similar-sounding numbers, he says. After a long day in the sky, crew members often need to unwind—sometimes adjusting to a completely new time zone. Correction: The original version of this story misdescribed the meanings behind some aviation phrases. Zulu time is a hour time system, not a hour time system.
Contact us at letters time. Here's What They're Really Saying. Getty Images.
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