Sandy Wood
Brain Game: Ajha!
by Sandy Wood - July 29, 2010 - 7:30 AM

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Today’s Brain Game is an open-ended question designed to get you thinking and ask you to share with us. Enjoy!

I worked telephone support for IBM’s OS/2 some years ago (ask your father), and still remember a particular incident. I had asked for the spelling of a female customer’s name, and as I repeated it back to her, she kept saying “No!”

We finally figured out what the problem was. She was spelling “H-A,” and I was hearing “A-J.” We both laughed – and were both intrigued – by the notion that the sound was so similar. So my question…

Have you come across any
similar phonic issues
with words, names, or spellings?

Please post your responses in the comments below. Thanks!
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Comments (47)

  1. Of course. P and B sound similar over the telephone or radio along with a ton of other combos of letters or letters themselves. All of this static confusion led to the developement of a phonetic alphabet during WWII. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, etc. At the beginning, people were just using whatever words they wanted to represent a letter. Later on, the military standarized it. I had the learn the whole thing back when I was in JROTC and still remember it. There are countless times when it has come in handy over the phone, as I used to work in customer service as well. It’s great for reading serial numbers with letters in them or other things along those lines. I still use it all the time. It’s a great thing to memorize, no matter who you are.

    posted by Eric on 7-29-2010 at 8:17 am

  2. The worst was during a game of Battleship with my brother that went someting like this:

    Him: I-1
    Me: No you didn’t! I still have ships remaining.
    Him: no, I-1
    Me: What are you talking about? You did not win!
    Him: You fool! Coordinate I-1.
    Me: (sheepishly) Oooohhh. Miss. G-3.

    posted by Susan on 7-29-2010 at 8:21 am

  3. Agreed, Eric. I learned it back in the CB radio days… my brother had a ham radio and would send/receive postcards from places all over the world, so I heard him recite those codes over and over again.

    -Sierra Alpha November Delta Yankee.

    posted by Sandy Wood on 7-29-2010 at 8:33 am

  4. Here’s a classic:

    Recognize speech.
    Wreck a nice beach.

    posted by Mark Whitney on 7-29-2010 at 8:50 am

  5. My last name starts with K-I and I have a slight Texan accent. When I spell my last name too quickly, it sounds like K-A instead.

    posted by Liz on 7-29-2010 at 9:17 am

  6. This is a double whammy.

    With my first name everyone attempts to spell it FILL.., when it is actually PHYL…

    The kicker is my last name. Beginging with FEN… everyone will now use the letter PEN..

    I am always having to say “P as is Paul” and “F as in Frank.” Other times I just let it go.

    posted by Phyllis on 7-29-2010 at 9:23 am

  7. Sorry I miss-spelled Beginning. Oops.

    posted by Phyllis on 7-29-2010 at 9:24 am

  8. Me: I’d be happy to help, what company are you with?

    Customer: ‘Pine Air’ Industrial

    Me: I don’t show you as an established customer

    Customer: Yeah we are, it’s ‘Pine Air’ Industrial

    Me: Can you spell that please?

    Customer: P-I-O-N-E-E-R

    Me: Oh! Pioneer

    (It’s in Tennessee, very strong accent)

    posted by jamie on 7-29-2010 at 9:32 am

  9. How great is it?

    It’s Sofa King great!

    posted by 8rustystaples on 7-29-2010 at 10:06 am

  10. I recently had to call in for some sort of support wherein I had to share a confirmation number with the operator. Everytime I read my letters to him, he repeated different letters back. He tried using words instead of letters (alpha, bravo, etc.), except he kept saying “Y like U”. It took me several frustrating minutes to realize he was saying “Y like You”! Not the best word choice.

    It got me thinking, would anyone ever say the following to help simplify understanding?
    - E like Eye
    - A like Aye
    - E like Ewe
    - S like See
    - E like Elle
    - A like Are
    - D like Double-U
    - E like Ex
    - W like Why

    posted by Jeff on 7-29-2010 at 10:24 am

  11. Tangentially, I managed an international call center at one point, and my team supported our latin america business. Oh, and we had alphanumeric account numbers.

    Nothing was more fun than some of the “__ as in ____” that came in.
    K is for kilo (only funny b/c we’d start with the drug jokes)
    O as in Jose
    D as in D. (seriously)
    U as in Orange.
    C as in Cap (which also sounds like T as in Tap)
    I know there were more…

    And those int’l phone lines were always terribly crackly. Itw as fun!

    posted by Josh on 7-29-2010 at 10:25 am

  12. I was a kid in the 80s and my mother worked with new Americans. I often played with the new American kids. One Russian girl and I talked about musicians we liked. She liked a internationally popular group called Debbie Shmode that I never heard of. A year passed before I realized it was Depeche Mode.

    posted by Jenniger on 7-29-2010 at 10:57 am

  13. When I first moved to Boston from the southwest, it took me a while to learn that:

    “P.S.D.S.”

    Actually meant:

    “Pierced Ears”

    Gotta Love New England…

    posted by M.X.F. on 7-29-2010 at 11:48 am

  14. My uncle used to tell the story of a trip he took with his girlfriend to a place, supposedly in Wales, called “Isle of View”. Well, while they were there, he read the sign out loud, and that’s how married my aunt.

    posted by ArtW on 7-29-2010 at 11:58 am

  15. This is my rationale behind the “Canadian” pronunciation of the letter Z as ‘zed’ and not ‘zee’. Zed does not sound like any other letter. Zee sounds similar to B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V… over the phone that can cause problems.

    posted by Bert on 7-29-2010 at 12:27 pm

  16. This happened at my customer support job for a web hosting company.

    Me: Domain name registration is $14.95 per year
    Customer: $1495?
    Me: No, 14 dollars and 95 cents.
    Customer: Forty dollars?
    Me: No, fourteen.
    Customer: Four dollars?
    Me: No, sir, fourteen dollars, as in ten plus four.
    Customer: Oh!

    posted by Kate on 7-29-2010 at 12:34 pm

  17. When I was little, I would say my name is “Nathan” people often heard “Jason.”

    I think it was mostly due to poor annunciation, but still, I’m surprised by how similar people thought they sounded.

    posted by JetaN JetaN on 7-29-2010 at 1:07 pm

  18. Whale oil Beef Hooked.

    Say it with an Irish Accent.
    Learned this joke in the 80′s. I was at a bar where one of the local radio stations had set up, and they were giving away tshirts for good jokes. I wrote this out and gave it to the dj. He loved it but couldn’t say it on the air.
    I still got a tshirt for it.

    posted by wawawa on 7-29-2010 at 1:23 pm

  19. I worked as a temp on a complaint line for a large restaurant chain (Problems? Questions? Call 1-800-etc). A woman with a heavy Southern accent called to report a problem with the bold? bowled? shrimp she’d been served. “Was the shrimp particularly aggressive, or was it served in a bowl?” I asked as a lighthearted way to indicate my confusion. There was a pause and then she very slowly spelled it out: “B-O-I-L-E-D shrimp.”

    posted by Alexandria on 7-29-2010 at 1:33 pm

  20. Reminds me of one of the funniest things I’ve ever read on McSweeney’s. Link to it is on my name.

    posted by Dinosaur on 7-29-2010 at 1:40 pm

  21. As part of his opening spiel, one of our new call center agents would greet callers with “This is Hugh.” A supervisor overheard him, turned to me and asked, “His name is Shoe?”

    posted by Greg on 7-29-2010 at 1:40 pm

  22. My best friend from high school has a story about when a particularly annoying teacher (who always made awful, borderline inappropriate jokes) was reading the answers to last night’s homework.

    This was advanced algebra, and all the answers were 2-point coordiantes: the first a number, the second a letter. He also made a point of saying “Comma” between each of the coordinates.

    He read the answer “Zero, Comma, D”, to which my friend blurted out, “Kind of like all your jokes!”

    posted by CC on 7-29-2010 at 1:45 pm

  23. Great question, I work in the auto industry and have to read out VIN’s a lot. I hate the official call outs (a- Alpha) so I like to come up with my own, and what other people use cracks me up. J like Jesus has to be the best, so simple but so odd at the same time- What you don;t know anyone names James?

    posted by Karmametta on 7-29-2010 at 1:48 pm

  24. Bert, based on wikipedia, “Zed” is actually the most common form of “Zee,” which makes sense since Egnlish is a Germanic language, and “Z” in German is pronounced “tset” (yes, it’s a very clipped sound). Another one of those things that we Americans mispronounce.

    posted by Matt on 7-29-2010 at 1:54 pm

  25. Here is my favorite:
    my bf’s name is Sean.
    He has to spell it all the time, since there are so many variations on the spelling of this name.

    But when you say it out loud, it sounds just as much like:
    “S-C-A-N”
    as it does like “S-E-A-N”.

    And yes, his starbucks cup has occasionally said “Scan” on it.

    posted by Lola on 7-29-2010 at 2:03 pm

  26. I also had a lady on the phone with me once who was trying to spell her last name.
    I should mention she had a thick accent.

    So at one point I heard this:
    “And that’s Ceee and in Ceebra!”

    (it was really a z)

    posted by Lola on 7-29-2010 at 2:05 pm

  27. We have clients that go by three character site codes – HEH and AGH are contsantly getting mixed up.

    posted by St. James on 7-29-2010 at 2:52 pm

  28. Jeff – you left out
    K as in Knight
    E as in Eight
    G as in Gnu
    T as in Tsunami or Tzar

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 7-29-2010 at 2:56 pm

  29. I work with a woman (whose first language is not English) who makes up her own phonetic alphabet, trying to be helpful on the phone. She comes out with things like, “S as in sight” or “N as in nine” to distinguish from F and M respectively. Not much help.

    (P.S. to Sandy: Is it somehow relevant to the story that your customer was female?)

    posted by B on 7-29-2010 at 3:09 pm

  30. I used to work at a hotel, and a woman with no strong grasp on the English language was trying to spell her name for me to make a reservation. “P, as in… Peter. O, as in… Peter.” I had to put her on hold so that I wouldn’t laugh in her ear.

    posted by liz on 7-29-2010 at 4:19 pm

  31. My last name is Cunningham
    Often, I get mail addressed to me as Cumminghan after verbally giving the spelling of my name over the phone.

    My husband’s name is Greg, but often he gets mail addressed to or called Craig. My stepdad is Phil, but gets called Bill (which, strangely enough is my dad’s name).

    We live on North Main Street. After talking to a customer service rep from another country, we received a bill with the address for Dors Mein Street.

    posted by Lori on 7-29-2010 at 4:42 pm

  32. when touring in canada they are required to call themselves zed zed top. its my favorite country. c-eh? n-eh? d-eh?

    posted by dirk alan on 7-29-2010 at 4:46 pm

  33. My first name is Adolfo.

    Pronounced ah-doll-fo

    but when i say it over the phone people are like what?

    Me: A D O L F O
    Customer: What?
    ME: A as in Apple
    d as in dog
    o as in …. etc..

    Client: how is that?

    Me: Ok it’s Adolf as in Adolf Hitler, but with an o at the end.

    Client: OHHHHH….ok”

    posted by xanderjones on 7-29-2010 at 5:02 pm

  34. I don’t know if this falls into this category but it is silly/funny nonetheless. I live in Wales and BT (the phone company) allows you to send texts to land line phones from a mobile. Well, if you send them in English the translation from text to voice mail is fairly good but if you send the text in Welsh the translation is absolutely hilarious. I haven’t done this for a couple of years now but I assume nothing much has changed.

    posted by elynorah on 7-29-2010 at 5:36 pm

  35. i work in a call center and my co-worker’s name is stef. at least twice a day i have someone call me that says “hi, a beth from there called me, im just calling back.” also, we have a jess that works here, and we get calls for her, except they say “stef.”

    posted by Crystal on 7-29-2010 at 5:43 pm

  36. OK, two stories.

    One was a P/T customer service rep, majoring in philosophy, who completely floored all our customers. When she spellchecked their names over the phone, it was always, “Is that K as in Kierkegaard, N as in Nietzsche, E as in Erasmus…?”

    The other story is one more about American regional accents. My family is from California, and years ago we were visiting southern Alabama when our car started giving us trouble. We called a local fixit place and got what seemed to be crystal-clear directions. Only hitch was that the woman on the phone said their storefront wasn’t very visible, but they were right next to Benson Tower. No problem, we thought. It was a small town, with mostly one-story buildings. Any tower should be easy to spot. It was only after going back and forth on Main Street four or five times that we noticed the huge sign for Benson TIRE Company….

    posted by Mama Bear on 7-29-2010 at 5:58 pm

  37. “High I.Q.” sounds like “I like you”. It can be incredibly awkward when making an off-hand commitment to a female companion describing a guest lecturer for your Sociology class.

    Yes, I learned that one the hard way.

    posted by Stu on 7-29-2010 at 6:46 pm

  38. Ah! I meant “comment” not “commitment”! Wow, there was a Freudian typo.

    posted by Stu on 7-29-2010 at 6:48 pm

  39. It’s always interesting to me that two collegiate athletic conferences–the ACC and the SEC–are one diphthong away from being phonetically identical. Add to that a regional accent or muddled speech, and they are sometimes hard to discern.

    posted by Curtis on 7-29-2010 at 7:32 pm

  40. The general term for these episodes of oral > aural dissonance is a mondegreen (or is it a mound of green?)

    posted by Ken on 7-29-2010 at 7:49 pm

  41. No, B, that’s just how I remember it. She was a very nice lady, and was patient considering how badly I was mis-hearing what she was saying. I grew up in rural Georgia (and still had a moderately-thick accent back then) so it was definitely an issue with me, not her.

    posted by Sandy Wood on 7-29-2010 at 8:46 pm

  42. A friend of mine was telling me about this great website called House of Forks at houseofforks.com. Apparently it had diagrams and detailed information about the inner workings of various products and processes, but I couldn’t get the web page to load. So I asked him to say it again.

    Him: House of Forks.
    Me: Spell it.
    Him: h o w s t u f f w o r k s dot c o m
    Me: Ah!

    posted by Jerad H on 7-29-2010 at 9:08 pm

  43. As a British-educated Canadian I am regularly floored by the insistence of both Americans and Canadians to pronounce a and o the same, and to say t in the middle of a word as d. Last week I was in the Minnesota Zoo with two of my daughters and on the monorail ride the guide directed our attention to the building housing the “water adders”. It took me some time to work out that she was talking of “otters” and not snakes. (Incidentally, my Canadian-educated daughters heard the same thing I did).

    posted by Gollum on 7-29-2010 at 10:55 pm

  44. Where I work, Terrace Pharmacy, we have to answer the phone with the name of our pharmacy, plus our title. So, it’s not uncommon to hear my coworkers (or myself!) say, “Terrorist Pharmacy, technician speaking. How may I help you?” We ARE the nicest terrorist pharmacy around.

    My worst experience trying to spell a name out also happened at work. It’s kind of involved, so you can read it in the link in my name if you want.

    posted by Janel on 7-30-2010 at 1:28 am

  45. My favorite is new direction. I blush every time I hear it.

    posted by Jake Ryan on 7-30-2010 at 5:55 am

  46. My last name is hyphenated (Summa-Kusiak) and people often hear “ika” at the end instead of “iak.” I really don’t know why. “I.K.A.?” “No, I.A.K.” “I.K.A.?” “No, I.A.K.!!!” I get tons of things addressed to Summa-Kusika.

    posted by jessiesk on 8-4-2010 at 7:41 pm

  47. My name is Libby but it’s not a super common name so when someone needs to spell it I get.

    Ruby or Debbie

    I knew a Girl Aja everyone would write her name down as Asia.

    posted by skoolie on 8-10-2010 at 1:26 pm

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