Giving your email address on the phone is one of the most stressful moments in a second language. It combines letters, numbers and symbols, all of which have to be understood exactly, and a single mistake means the message never arrives.
This guide covers what English speakers call each symbol, how to read email and web addresses, and a few techniques native speakers use to make spelling unmistakable. Where British and American usage differ, both are given.
Reading an email address
The two essential words are at for @ and dot for the full stop. Everything else is read as a word if it is a word, or spelled letter by letter if it is not.
maria.silva_82@example.com
"maria dot silva underscore eight two at example dot com"
Some useful additions:
- Say "all lower case" or "all one word" at the start if there are no spaces or capitals, which is almost always true.
- Spell anything that is not an ordinary English word: "that's S-I-L-V-A".
- Read numbers digit by digit: 82 is "eight two", not "eighty-two", unless the person clearly understands it as a number.
- Common domains are said as words: "gmail dot com", "outlook dot com", "yahoo dot co dot uk".
Names of common symbols
| Symbol | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| @ | at | "the at sign" when naming the symbol itself |
| . | dot | in emails and web addresses; "point" in numbers (3.5); "full stop" (UK) or "period" (US) at the end of a sentence |
| _ | underscore | |
| - | hyphen, dash | "hyphen" is more precise; "dash" is common in web addresses |
| / | slash, forward slash | |
| \ | backslash | |
| # | hash (UK), pound sign or number sign (US) | "hashtag" only on social media |
| & | and, ampersand | /ˈæm.pə.sænd/ |
| * | asterisk, star | /ˈæs.tə.rɪsk/; "star" on phone keypads |
| ~ | tilde | /ˈtɪl.də/ |
| | | vertical bar, pipe | "pipe" among programmers |
| % | per cent (UK), percent (US) | |
| : | colon | |
| ; | semicolon | |
| ! | exclamation mark (UK), exclamation point (US) | |
| ( ) | brackets (UK), parentheses (US) | parentheses /pəˈren.θə.siːz/ |
| [ ] | square brackets, brackets (US) | |
| { } | curly brackets, braces | |
| " " | quotation marks, quotes | "inverted commas" in British English |
Two pronunciation traps: asterisk ends in /rɪsk/, not "asterix"; and hyphen is /ˈhaɪ.fən/, with the ph pronounced /f/.
Reading a website address
People rarely say the beginning of a web address any more. "h-t-t-p-s colon slash slash" is almost never spoken, and www is usually dropped too, partly because "double-u double-u double-u" is nine syllables, longer than most addresses.
https://www.pronunciationchecker.com/blog/
"pronunciation checker dot com slash blog"
If you do need www, Americans sometimes say "dub dub dub" informally. For a hyphen in a domain, "dash" is the usual word: my-site.com is "my dash site dot com".
Making spelling unmistakable
On the phone, many letters sound alike: B, D, E, P, T and V all rhyme; so do M and N, and F and S. Native speakers use three techniques to avoid confusion.
- "As in": "M as in Mike", "N as in November", "B for Bravo". Any common word works; you do not need the official alphabet.
- "Double": "double L" for LL, "double S" for SS. British speakers use this for numbers too: 077 is "oh double seven". Americans more often say "zero seven seven".
- Grouping: read long strings in groups of three or four with a small pause between them, the way phone numbers are read.
The international spelling alphabet used by airlines and the military is worth learning if you spell things often: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. For the letter names themselves, see our guide to English letter names.
Zero, oh and nought
The digit 0 has several names:
- oh in phone numbers, room numbers and years (room four-oh-two, nineteen oh five), especially in British English
- zero in maths, temperatures and most American usage
- nought in British English for the digit in decimals (nought point five)
- nil for football scores in British English; nothing or zero in American English; love in tennis
Written abbreviations read aloud
| Written | Usually said as |
|---|---|
| e.g. | "for example", or "ee-jee" |
| i.e. | "that is", or "eye-ee" |
| etc. | "et cetera" /ɪt ˈset.ər.ə/, not "ex cetera" |
| vs. | "versus" /ˈvɜː.səs/ |
| a.m. / p.m. | "ay-em", "pee-em" |
| & Co. | "and company" |
| No. 5 | "number five" |
| Dr, Mr, Mrs, Ms | "doctor", "mister", "missiz" /ˈmɪs.ɪz/, "miz" /mɪz/ |
Practice
Read these aloud as if on the phone, then check against the answers.
- j.o_neill@company.co.uk
- www.my-portfolio.net/projects
- Call 020 7946 0018, extension 405.
Answers: (1) "J dot O underscore neill, that's N-E-I-double L, at company dot co dot uk"; (2) "my dash portfolio dot net slash projects"; (3) "oh two oh, seven nine four six, oh oh one eight, extension four oh five" (British) or "zero two zero…" (American).
Frequently asked questions
How do you say the @ symbol in English?
In an email address it is simply "at". When talking about the symbol itself, people say "the at sign" or "the at symbol".
Is it "dot" or "point"?
Dot in email and web addresses; point in numbers (3.5 is three point five); full stop or period at the end of a sentence.
What do Americans call the # symbol?
Traditionally the pound sign or number sign, especially on phones. Most people now also understand hashtag, and British speakers call it hash.
Sources and further reading
- Swan, M. (2016). Practical English Usage (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.
- International Civil Aviation Organization. Annex 10 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Volume II (radiotelephony spelling alphabet).
- Wells, J. C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Pearson Longman.
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