The Morse code alphabet, A to Z, with the rhythm of each letter
The Morse code alphabet gives each of the 26 letters its own pattern of short and long signals, called dits and dahs. A is .-, a dit then a dah, which sounds like di-dah. B is -..., dah-di-di-dit, and so on down to Z, --.., dah-dah-di-dit. The full table is below, with every letter’s rhythm written the way it sounds, then the patterns that tie the letters together and the right way to use a chart like this.
As you read the table, say the rhythm column out loud rather than reading the dots and dashes. Morse is a sound, and the rhythm words are much closer to it than the marks on the page.
The alphabet, A to Z
| Letter | Code | Rhythm |
|---|---|---|
| A | .- |
di-dah |
| B | -... |
dah-di-di-dit |
| C | -.-. |
dah-di-dah-dit |
| D | -.. |
dah-di-dit |
| E | . |
dit |
| F | ..-. |
di-di-dah-dit |
| G | --. |
dah-dah-dit |
| H | .... |
di-di-di-dit |
| I | .. |
di-dit |
| J | .--- |
di-dah-dah-dah |
| K | -.- |
dah-di-dah |
| L | .-.. |
di-dah-di-dit |
| M | -- |
dah-dah |
| N | -. |
dah-dit |
| O | --- |
dah-dah-dah |
| P | .--. |
di-dah-dah-dit |
| Q | --.- |
dah-dah-di-dah |
| R | .-. |
di-dah-dit |
| S | ... |
di-di-dit |
| T | - |
dah |
| U | ..- |
di-di-dah |
| V | ...- |
di-di-di-dah |
| W | .-- |
di-dah-dah |
| X | -..- |
dah-di-di-dah |
| Y | -.-- |
dah-di-dah-dah |
| Z | --.. |
dah-dah-di-dit |
A dit is the short signal. A dah lasts three times as long. Inside a letter, the dits and dahs are separated by a silence one dit long; between letters the silence is three dits, and between words it is seven. The table tells you what to send, and those proportions tell you how. Morse code timing: the 1, 3, 7 rule goes through them in detail.
Morse has no upper or lower case. The pattern for A stands for a and A alike.
Why “di-dah” and not “dot dash”
The rhythm words follow one simple rule: a dit inside a letter is “di”, a dit at the end is “dit”, and a dah is always “dah”. So L is di-dah-di-dit, and SOS is di-di-di-dah-dah-dah-di-di-dit.
The words copy the sound. A dit in the middle of a letter runs straight into the next element after a gap of only one unit, and the clipped “di” says that. “Dot dash” describes the picture instead. Saying “dot dash” trains you to translate a picture; saying “di-dah” trains you to hear a shape. Use the rhythm words whenever you rehearse a letter in your head.
The patterns that group the letters
You do not need these patterns to learn Morse, but they make the table easier to scan and they explain which letters get confused.
By length
| Elements | Letters |
|---|---|
| 1 | E, T |
| 2 | I, A, N, M |
| 3 | S, U, R, W, D, K, G, O |
| 4 | H, V, F, L, P, J, B, X, C, Y, Z, Q |
No letter has more than four elements. E and T have the two shortest codes because they are the most common letters in English. Why E is one dit looks at how far that idea runs through the rest of the code.
All dits and all dahs
E, I, S and H are one, two, three and four dits: ., .., ..., ..... T, M and O are one, two and three dahs: -, --, ---. There is no four-dah letter. The figure 5 continues the dit run with five dits, and 0 is five dahs.
Opposites
Swap every dit for a dah and every dah for a dit, and most letters turn into another letter:
| Letter | Opposite |
|---|---|
E . |
T - |
I .. |
M -- |
S ... |
O --- |
A .- |
N -. |
U ..- |
G --. |
D -.. |
W .-- |
R .-. |
K -.- |
F ..-. |
Q --.- |
L .-.. |
Y -.-- |
P .--. |
X -..- |
B -... |
J .--- |
Only H, V, C and Z have no partner.
Mirrors
Read some letters backward and you get another letter: A and N, D and U, B and V, G and W, F and L, Q and Y. R, K, P and X read the same both ways, as do the all-dit and all-dah letters.
Sound-alikes
The pairs that trip learners up are the ones that differ by a single element: S ... and H ...., U ..- and V ...-, D -.. and B -..., M -- and O ---. A and N are mirror images and catch people early too. When two of these blur, the fix is to hear them side by side, not to stare at the chart. Morse letters that sound alike has drills for each pair.
How to use the table without learning from it
A chart is a good tool for looking things up: checking the spelling of a name for a bracelet, solving a puzzle, confirming a letter you half remember. It is a poor tool for learning to read Morse by ear.
The reason is the habit it builds. If you learn the alphabet as pictures, then when you hear a letter you have to turn the sound into dots and dashes, count them, and find the match. That works at a few words per minute and falls apart above it, because the next letter arrives before you have finished looking up the last one. Learn Morse code by sound, not from a chart explains the alternative in full, but in short:
- Learn each letter as a sound. Hear it at a brisk character speed, even if you leave extra space between letters while you learn.
- Start with a few letters. Add a new one only when you copy the ones you have reliably. The Koch method uses about 90 percent correct as the signal to add the next.
- Rehearse in rhythm words. If you catch yourself counting dits, say the letter’s rhythm instead.
- Keep the chart for checking. If you look up the same letter again and again, that letter needs time by ear, not another glance.
Using the table to write or decode by hand
To write a word, look up each letter, leave a space between letters and a slash between words. HI MOM is .... .. / -- --- --. To decode, split the Morse at the spaces and look up each group. With a pencil and this table, anyone can encode or decode a message in a few minutes.
Practicing the alphabet on a Mac
If you want to hear and key the letters rather than read them, Dot & Dash has a Reference with the letters, figures, punctuation and prosigns, where resting the pointer on a character plays it. Its course teaches the alphabet two or three letters a chapter, keyed with Space or the knob of its on-screen key, starting with E, T and A so that you key real words such as AT and TEA in the first chapter, and it keeps sound-alikes such as A and N at least a chapter apart.
Questions
How many letters are in the Morse code alphabet?
International Morse code has a pattern for each of the 26 letters from A to Z, plus the figures 0 to 9 and a set of punctuation marks. It has no separate patterns for upper and lower case.
Which Morse letters are the easiest to learn?
E and T are the shortest, a single dit and a single dah. Learning them first lets you build real words quickly once you add a few more, such as A and N.
Which Morse letter takes the longest to send?
J, Q and Y tie at 13 units each, because each has three dahs and one dit. For comparison, E takes 1 unit and T takes 3.
Should I memorize the Morse alphabet from a chart?
It is better not to. Use the chart for looking things up, and learn the letters by sound, so that you recognize each one as a rhythm instead of decoding a picture.