Why do pilots say 'ninah' instead of 'nine'?

Several digits have their own distinct pronunciation in the aviation industry that differentiate them from the usual "zero" to "nine" used in everyday speech.

Three is pronounced "tree", four stretches into "fower", five is "fife" or sometimes "fivah" and nine is "ninah".

This pronunciation makes it crystal clear which aircraft, runway or taxiway is being referred to in communications between pilots and air traffic controllers.

"Tree" is obvious since many non-English speakers have trouble pronouncing the "th" sound.

The number nine is particularly tricky since it sounds exactly the same as the Germen word for no, "nein".

For exactly the same reasons, the aviation industry uses words assigned to the letters of the English alphabet by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. "B" is Bravo, to avoid confusion with "D" (Delta), "P" (Papa) or "T" (Tango), "N" is "November", to differentiate it from "M", "Mike".

All these are two or three-syllable words, making them much easier to understand than the single-syllable words that most English speakers commonly use to represent the letters of their alphabet.