Morse code FAQ

A way of sending text as short and long signals. Each letter, number and punctuation mark is a fixed pattern of dits (short signals) and dahs (long ones), and the international code is set out by ITU in Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1.

A dah lasts three times as long as a dit, and the silences carry meaning too: 1 unit between the marks of a letter, 3 between letters and 7 between words. That is why the same message works as sound, light, a radio signal or taps. See the timing drawn to scale.

Split it at the letter gaps, then match each group of marks to its letter: in writing, a space ends a letter and a slash ends a word. Paste it into the translator to have it read for you, or learn the letters by sound in the grid on this page.

Write each letter as its pattern from the morse code alphabet, with a space between letters and a slash between words. To send it, keep the same timing with a sound, a light or a tap, or type your text into the translator and press Play.

Paste the dots and dashes into the Morse panel of the translator and the text appears as you paste. For a short pattern such as a single dot or seven dots, look it up on the answers page, which says where it turns up.

Samuel F. B. Morse, an American artist and inventor, devised it in the 1830s for the electric telegraph, and his assistant and partner Alfred Vail improved it. The international code used today was devised later, by a conference of European nations in 1851.

In the 1830s, for Morse’s electric telegraph. The International Morse Code followed in 1851 to cover letters with accents, and apart from some minor changes in 1938 it has stayed the same since.

Yes. Aviation radio beacons identify themselves in morse, amateur radio operators use it every day, and Gboard on Android has a morse keyboard for people who can’t type. Read where else it is used, and where it stopped.

By ear, one letter at a time. The Koch method starts with two letters at full speed and adds one each time you get 90% right; the how-to-learn page has a drill to start now, and the Koch trainer takes you through every lesson.

It depends on how often you practice, so no single figure holds for everyone. What you can count is the steps: the LCWO Koch course has 41 characters and adds them one at a time, so it is 40 lessons from K and M to the full set.

Three dits, three dahs and three dits, sent as one signal with no gaps between the letters. Hear it and see it blink on the SOS page.

Send I, then L O V E, then Y O U, with a word gap between the three: 24 marks in all. Hear it, blink it or tap it.

H, E, L, L and O, with a letter gap between each: 16 marks in all. Hear it and see it blink.

Six dits: four for H, a letter gap, then two for I. Hear it and see it blink.

H, E, L and P: 13 marks. In a real emergency send SOS instead, which is shorter and known everywhere. Hear help and compare the two.

Y, E and S: 8 marks. On the air, ITU-R M.1172 also lets the single letter C stand for yes. Hear it and see the short forms.

With Gboard, Google’s keyboard, which has a morse layout on Android. Google Translate has no morse. Read how to turn the keyboard on.

Give a short flash for a dit and one three times as long for a dah, with one count of dark between marks, three between letters and seven between words. On an Android phone in Chrome, the translator can blink your phone’s flashlight for you.

Close your eyes for one count for a dit and three counts for a dah, and open them for one count between marks. Read how to keep the counts even.

Keep the same 1 to 3 timing with taps: one count for a dit, three for a dah, and silences of one count inside a letter and three between letters. Read how to tap it clearly.