This is an all ears English podcast, episode 1670 M or N.
How to make your name clear on the telephone.
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Many letters in English sound the same, which can lead to confusion on phone calls.
Today you'll learn tips to use when spelling words over the phone in English, so that you can save time on your next telephone call.
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Hey, Lindsay, how's it going?
It's going great, Aubrey.
How are you?
I am great.
I had a really fun weekend.
I had something funny happen to me this weekend that happens to me a lot.
If ever I make an order for food over the phone and I tell them my name Aubrey, they always write down Bree like B-R-E-E or B-R-I.
Interesting.
I don't know if they think I'm saying, uh, Bree, like I'm thinking up a made up name.
Maybe this happens all the time.
I clearly pause too much between the two syllables of my name.
Ah, Bree.
Ah.
I've had the opposite problem happen to me.
I've been on the phone before where someone's asked my name and for some reason I hesitate or I'm thinking about something else.
I'm not present.
And I'll say, oh, Lindsay.
And they'll say, oh, Lindsay, is that your name?
Like add an AU to the beginning of your name.
That's really funny.
So yeah.
And like, if I'm at Starbucks or somewhere and they write your name on the cup, it'll always be B-R-I or B-R-E-E, almost every time.
Has that ever actually been your nickname before?
I guess that could be a nickname for Aubrey.
Yeah, no, my family growing up called me Aub.
They took the first syllable of my name.
So I actually had a good friend in high school named Aubrey as well.
And they called her Bree.
So I was glad that I was Aub.
So she could be Bree and we didn't have the same nickname.
Yeah.
You know, I'm glad we're talking about this for our listeners today, because this can be really frustrating and difficult when you're trying to get across something on the phone, right?
Today we're centering in on this being on the phone and trying to make sure you're well understood.
Oh, my gosh.
And this is something that happens for natives as well.
If you're speaking to someone about insurance maybe, and they need to get the proper spelling of names.
This often.
Often happens that we have to, you know, spell out a name or just repeat a letter to make sure they understood correctly, because it's hard to hear over the phone.
It's really hard.
I was just on the phone last night with United Airlines trying to claim one of my credits airline credits from the pandemic right.
All these flights got canceled and you have flight credits everywhere.
And so a lot of stress actually builds up trying to make sure that she understands everything I'm saying and I can get those credits.
So guys, this happens all the time.
So we're going to help you here to make sure you get what you need on the phone.
Yes, exactly.
We want to make sure you guys are aware that you can take a free two minute quiz to get your level in English.
So go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score and you'll get free resources at your level.
So check that out today. allearsenglish.com slash fluency score.
Yes.
Awesome.
All right.
So let's get into the details.
How should we let our listeners know about this today, Aubrey?
Yeah, I think the first thing is to be aware of how many letters sound the same on the phone.
M and N sound almost exactly the same in English and pretty much any letter that rhymes, right?
Yeah, it's true.
Oh, my gosh.
M and you guys can hear how close they are.
So what do we do?
You know, if we're trying to spell something out, we're trying to say M, you don't want them.
What would be Oh, another one, E, V, B, and C. Those all sound a lot alike.
I know.
They all rhyme.
It's so easy to mix them up.
And often you can just spell a name and it's fine if they spell it wrong, if they hear the letter wrong or maybe they will ask you to repeat a letter.
But if it is a phone call, where it's very important that they spell the name right, for whatever reason, if you're talking to a doctor, a credit card company, anytime when it's vital that they write it correctly, we think it's really wise to give it with a word.
So, for example, if you're saying the letter M, you could say M as in Mary.
Yes, that's why.
So that's a recommendation, right?
Give that other word.
And usually I just go with the first thing that comes to mind.
This is especially painful when you're trying to give someone your email so they can send you a confirmation or something you need to do in your email.
That's painful.
Just because it's the whole, if it's like a long email address.
Oh gosh, it's bad.
So guys, listen in today.
So useful.
We're teaching you.
So M you could say as in Mary, as we said, what else Aubrey?
I as in ice cream, maybe C as in cat.
And then H as in handy.
Again, guys, you can choose whatever words come to mind first.
And this is a great exercise for our English vocabulary too.
How quickly did these words come to mind?
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
And you can pick any word there, you know, as long as it's a word that's fairly uncommon, or you know there isn't another one that rhymes exactly.
So like E as in elephant is a really good example.
There's no you know other word that starts with a letter that sounds like E, that sounds anything like elephant.
So that's a really good one.
Yeah, that's a good one.
And then if you want to say l l as in love or l as in like those are two things you could say, all right, what else?
E as in eat.
So here's what you don't want to do.
We want to make sure you guys are aware of this.
If you choose a letter that has two words that start with the letter, that sounds the same.
So, for example, M.
You would not want to say M as in moose because the other person might say back to you wait, N as in noose.
Right, because there is another word.
It's a rhyming word, both starting with that letter that sounds the same.
So you want to be sure that you're picking a word that is not going to make it even more confusing.
Yeah.
Yeah, completely.
Make it really straightforward.
Like go back to the, you know, go back to the basics with this.
And then obviously don't give an example where the letter is silent.
Like P, you wouldn't say P as in pneumonia or something like that, right?
Good example.
P as in psycho.
Right.
No, don't do that.
Don't do that.
Just being silly here for our listeners.
But what is another way that we see this?
For example, Aubrey, you thought of this.
You see this in movies and the typical American cultural scripts.
Yes.
Right.
You're going to hear the NATO phonetic alphabet used.
So often soldiers or military officials will use these letters and they are used right by by government, by militaries, in order to make sure there's no confusion.
Often they won't even spell the letter.
They'll just say the words.
So, for example, A is Alpha Alpha.
B is Bravo.
C is Charlie.
So I guarantee in movies, on podcasts, you've heard someone spell a word just using these letters, right?
Instead of saying, spelling act, they say Alpha, Charlie, Tango.
I've even heard this being done on customer service calls.
You know, you call your cell phone company.
I think they probably train some people in customer service to do this.
That makes sense.
Yeah, that would make sense.
So D, Delta, right?
That makes sense.
E, Echo.
And then F, what's that one, Aubrey?
Foxtrot, which is actually a dance.
I learned the Foxtrot in high school in a dance class.
Really?
Do you know how to foxtrot, Lindsay?
I definitely don't.
It feels so old fashioned.
It is a little bit of an old fashioned dance.
It was really fun, this dance.
We learned like the polka, the waltz, the foxtrot, all these really fun.
It was kind of embarrassing as a teenager to be doing these dances that are a little bit silly.
But
Those are classic, though.
Very classic.
That's so good.
These are good life skills to have, aren't they?
Yeah.
But you guys should definitely look that up, this phonetic alphabet, so that all of the words there you can like.
Lindsay said you can pick any word that you're familiar with.
And for the most part, these conversations you're having, that's going to be all you need, right?
To say L as in love, and they know what letter you're saying right yeah, but it wouldn't hurt to also be familiar with this phonetic alphabet.
It wouldn't hurt at all.
It'll make you more and more fluent.
And don't be afraid to give these examples, these words that come to mind if you know, especially if you're giving a customer service person your email.
You know that's going to be a mess.
Just do it from the beginning.
Just assume it's going to be hard for them to understand you and start to give the letters Right.
Give the words that go with the letters.
Yeah.
Especially for those letters that, you know, sound like another letter.
Right.
Completely.
Yeah.
You may say like A, but then say B as in boy, you know, C as in cat.
Yes.
J. Right.
Yeah.
Any letter that you know rhymes with another letter.
Just give them a quick word to make it easier and faster.
Yeah, anything that's going to speed up the call.
You want to respect people's time, right?
In our culture, time is so important, your time and the other person's time.
So do whatever you can to respect that.
Do we have a little role play just to show our listeners what it might sound like on the phone?
Yes.
Yeah, let's do it.
Okay.
Okay.
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Yeah, let's do it.
Okay.
Okay.
So what's that street name again?
Fairy Lane.
Can you spell that?
Sure.
That's F as in fast, E as in elephant, double R Y, L as in leaf A, N as in Nancy and E as in elephant again.
Okay, thank you.
Yeah, I can imagine.
If you spelled that that way and you're not using it for every letter, but just the letters that sound like another letter, I'd be able to write that very easily.
Saves us both a lot of time.
Yeah, that's so common to not do it for every single letter.
It doesn't mean because you've given an example for the first F, it doesn't mean you have to do it for every single letter, right?
Don't get redundant or monotonous like that.
Just do it for the ones you think you need.
Yeah.
And it's really good to give someone who's spelling something out a heads up on the double.
If there's a double R, a double N, let them know that it's spelled that way because they, especially in a name, a lot of people wouldn't realize that.
Yeah.
And also sometimes when you, if there's two R's and you just say R R, they might think you're repeating yourself.
Right.
But you're actually just trying to say that it's a.
It's much better to say double R.
That's so much more natural, guys.
Yeah, because sometimes there will.
If there's a you know a break in the connection, or if they're not sure you heard them there or you know, then you they might think you're just saying it a second time.
That can be super confusing.
So yeah, you say just double R, double T, double N.
Exactly.
It happens so much.
This kind of thing is miscommunication happens so much for me on the phone.
And then you know if you you know spelling your name.
For example, Michelle talks about spelling her name.
You know Michelle with two L's, because there is some people spell their name Michelle with one L.
I do that because mine, Audrey, with a D is very common in English.
And I get that all the time.
People will call me Audrey or I'll say Aubrey and they'll write Audrey.
So I often will say Aubrey with a B as in boy.
Okay.
Excellent.
Yeah, everyone has kind of a quirk with their name.
For me, it's, you know, Lindsay with an A-Y, not an E-Y, right?
So people often ask me, that's the first question people are going to say, is it E-Y or A-Y?
Because there's two ways to spell Lindsay.
So just fill them in ahead of time.
You anticipate these questions, guys, get them out of the way and move on.
Yeah, especially Aubrey.
For a long time.
I would just say Aubrey with a B, and they would still write it wrong because D sounds just like B over the phone.
So I started realizing I had to say Aubrey with a B like boy.
Wow.
So we learn these things as we go throughout our lives.
And then we say, why did my parents give me this complicated name?
Right.
I know, especially names that spell really long.
Or I know a lot of people who choose an email address that's really long and complicated and they realize why did I do that?
I'm going to have to say this to people all my life.
Exactly.
And then and then you think you don't realize how important it is when you're.
You know, I chose my email address when I was like 21, finishing college, and I still have some of these addresses and I never changed them because you kind of just have your address.
You don't really change it.
Yeah, you don't want to have to send the new one to everyone you know.
It's just easier to keep using the same one.
Someone should have told us how important it was when we first chose our email addresses.
I feel like
I know.
I think my first one was like skater girl or something.
I have to change this.
Let's just have it be my name.
Yeah, exactly.
We could do a whole nother episode on what not to make your email, right?
What to watch out for when you set your email.
So good.
So let's do a little role play here, Aubrey, shall we?
Yes.
All right.
So ask me, you can ask me about my name on the phone on the phone and I'll give you my B as in boy.
Sure, sure, sure.
All right.
So what's the last name?
Last name is Carter with a C and the first name is Aubrey.
Okay.
And that was, can you spell that for me just real quick?
Sure.
A-U-B as in boy, R-E as in elephant, Y.
Okay, I got it.
All right.
Thank you.
Yes, no problem.
I threw in the E as an elephant because it, could you know, it sounds like C and V and T.
There are so many letters that sound a lot alike.
Yeah.
So guys, just get ready.
You know, have the patience, but have these little tricks up your sleeve ahead of time before you get on that call.
Especially I'm thinking about customer service, but with anyone, to make sure you just save time for people, right.
And frustration.
Especially over the phone, there's already enough frustrating things going on, right?
There might be a poor connection.
You can't see body language and signals.
So this is very common.
And you should do it as well, just to make sure that the person on the other end understands the name or the word that you're spelling.
And this is especially important for our listeners.
Guys, if you're living in the US and you have a name from another part of the world, it's going to be especially important for you to make sure you practice this.
Like right now, after you finish the episode, go and write down your full name, your address and come up with ways you could help people out by giving them example words, right.
That start with those letters.
Pick those words ahead of time so that you know which letters are problematic words that would work, and it's just sort of script you can learn to make it easy and simple.
Awesome.
I love it.
So good.
So guys, go over to allersenglish.com forward slash fluency score to find out.
It's a very simple quiz.
It takes just a few minutes and you'll get your fluency score and then resources for your level.
So we'll see you guys over there.
All right, Aubrey.
Awesome.
Thanks for coming on the show.
Yeah.
See you next time.
All right.
Take care.
Bye.
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