Everyone has had to use the phonetic alphabet at some point in their life. Some more than others… in publishing we use it a lot! Recently we couldn’t help but notice that it seems a little dated. In fact we had to google a few of them to find out what or where they were!

 

So, to start 2017 with a giggle, we thought it would be fun to do an up-to-date 2017 Phonetic alphabet. Enjoy!

 

A – Aesthetic

You'll find this all over tumblr. "This is my aesthetic, and you're really... offending me right now".

 

B – Bae

Standing for 'before anyone else'. It’s not a partner or boyfriend/girlfriend, its bae, get with the times.

 

C – Crunk

“We’re getting Crunk tonight” - lots  of meanings. Mostly used to say crazy drunk. Generally a word that means you’re excited.

 

D – Damn Daniel

An internet vine that went viral. A teen at school shouting “Damn Daniel” whenever his friend Daniel came to school wearing a pair of Vans – he had many. The full version being “damn Daniel back at it again with the white vans”!

 

E – Emoji

Needless to say, we have all used these. They just complete a text. Everyone has their own favourite. Our personal favourite is the many coloured of books, obviously.

 

F – Fetch

It became popular from Mean Girls, everyone was saying Fetch that year, and the cool kids still are.

 

G – Goals

Goals referring to a cute couple that you wish to be like. For example: “Aww, you two are so cute. Such goals”.  

 

H - Harambe

Do we need to elaborate? The poor gorilla who made the news after being shot due to a mother not paying attention to her young child that ended up falling into his enclosure. He has since become an internet phenomenon, and when you get to that level, you are awarded a meme, and he has many.

 

I – Insta

We don’t need to be reminded that Instagram runs the world now. Let’s move on.

 

J – Just do it

Oh, Shia Labeouf. He hit the headlines with his strange ways, the most famous being his inspirational video titled, Just do it. Did you do it? We certainly did.

 

K – Kardashian

Why we love talking about her we don’t know… can we stop it? Hopefully soon.

 

L – Lit

A term to mean, very drunk or high. Every friday night, you will hear it from strangers in pubs a few times.

 

M – My name Jeff.

Another meme / viral video from the film 21 Jump Street. We don’t know why it’s funny, it just is, why question everything!

 

N – Netflix and Chill

Netflix threw away the need to be home at a certain time to watch our favourite films. Everything we love is on there, on demand. But this doesn’t mean just watching a film. Google it if you don’t know. (Also, if you don’t know… where have you been)?

 

O – On Fleek

“Eyebrows on Fleek” so, eyebrows became everything this year. And we love it.

 

P – Pokemon Go

2016 was the year that everyone whipped out their mobiles and pretended they were gamers in order to play the above. How long did it last? Well, do you know anyone who still plays it?

 

Q – Queen B

Oh Beyonce, how we love you so. Lemonade was released last year showing what her musical majesty can do and most importantly what she can get away with.

 

R – RT

RT (re tweets) plastered our twitter feeds this year.

 

S – Sesh

 A one word way  to say a wild night out. Short for session we assume, but its almost always related to partying. Do it for the Sesh.

 

T – Twerk

Okay this is more of a 2014/15 thing but it's still very much alive and on our screens. We've all tried  and most of us have failed miserably. We just want to be Miley. But, us normal folk would rather be 2010 Miley when she had those luscious long brown locks hand in hand with her alter ego Hannah Montana. It was the best of both worlds after all!

 

U – Uber

Taxi? That is so 2013, its all about Uber. Unless you live in a village in the middle of nowhere, in which case you'll struggle with a basic taxi and will have to wait for the bus that comes once an hour and stops at 5PM.

 

W – WTF

We don't need to say what that stands for. You can guess. But, everyone has said it. It's just far more polite than the real thing.

 

X – xoxo

Okay, so admittedly we were struggling with X. What trend begins with an X? We were going to say X Factor, but really... who still watches that, let alone votes? Honey G, no. We're still all about Honey Boo Boo child. Some of us that are still stuck in the noughties finish out texts with xoxo, or at least know the song.

 

Y – YOLO

You only live once. No one uses it unless it's for an ill timed joke, but it is still used because no causal conversation is complete without a failed attempt of humour.

 

Z – Zoella

You know her. She's on every teen magazine, has her own YouTube channel with millions of subs, her own beauty range, home decor range and even pencils. That's when you know you've made it, when you can charge £5 for a pack of pencils. Hurrah for exploiting young childrens adoration to someone that has famously told all of her fans that she wrote a book, when really, she hired a ghost writer. One word , inspirational. To be fair, they're rose gold pencils. We'll give you  that one, Zoella.

 

 

 

So, what did you think of our list. Can you think of any better ones, if so, let us know! Needless to say, we will not be reading out all the above when spelling out a book store or address in the future. Unless  Zoella makes it into the dictionary, at the moment it's Zulu, we can't help but think  that is not as recognised universally.