nato

Everyday

1. NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an alliance of countries in North America and Europe, including the USA, Canada, the UK and many others, which promise to defend each other if one of them is attacked. tree →
2. The NATO phonetic alphabet is the list of code words for letters (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie...) used by pilots, police and armies so letters are not misheard on the radio. tree →

In the lessons

In citizenship and news lessons NATO comes up when talking about wars, defence and alliances, for example how NATO countries have helped Ukraine after Russia's invasion with weapons and money, while not sending their own armies to fight. The key idea is «an attack on one is an attack on all». The NATO alphabet is fun for spelling names on the phone. Phrases: NATO members, a NATO country, NATO allies, the NATO alphabet.

Examples

• NATO is an alliance of countries that promise to protect each other. tree →
• The UK and Canada are both members of NATO. tree →
• NATO leaders met to talk about helping Ukraine. tree →
• Finland and Sweden joined NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine. tree →
• In the NATO alphabet, A is Alpha and B is Bravo. tree →
• The pilot spelt the word as «Charlie, Alpha, Tango». tree →
• Some people support NATO and some argue against it. tree →
• NATO's headquarters are in Brussels in Belgium. tree →

Note

An acronym, said as one word: «NAY-toe». Written NATO (UK newspapers may write Nato). Usually without «the» (NATO says..., members of NATO). It is a defence alliance, not a country and not the same as the United Nations (UN), which nearly all countries belong to. In the input it is in lower case, but it is always a name.