Morse code: how it works and how to learn it

Morse code turns letters into short and long signals: dots and dashes. Invented for the electric telegraph in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail, it's still used by amateur radio operators, pilots and sailors, and it's a fun skill to learn. Here's how it works and how to learn it.

The rules

All Morse timing is based on the length of one dot:

• A dash lasts as long as three dots.
• The gap between the dots and dashes of one letter is one dot long.
• The gap between letters is three dots long.
• The gap between words is seven dots long.

When written down, a space separates letters and a slash separates words: .... .. / - .... . .-. . means “HI THERE”. Paste it into the Morse code translator to hear it.

The letters people learn first

The most common English letters got the shortest codes: E is a single dot and T a single dash. The full chart, with every letter, number and punctuation mark, is in the translator.

SOS

The famous distress signal ... --- ... was adopted internationally in the early 1900s because it's easy to send and impossible to mistake, not because it stands for words like “save our souls”. It's sent as one continuous signal, without the gaps between letters.

How to learn Morse code

1. Learn by sound, not by sight. Experienced operators hear “di-dah” for A, not “dot dash”. Counting dots on paper becomes a habit that's hard to break.
2. Learn at full speed. Play each letter at 15 to 20 words per minute, but leave long gaps between letters at first (this is called Farnsworth timing). Slowing down the letters themselves makes them sound like counting.
3. Add letters gradually. Start with two letters, and add a new one when you get 90% right (the Koch method).
4. Practise little and often. Ten to fifteen minutes a day beats an hour once a week.

The translator plays any text at the speed you choose, flashes it as light, and can save it as a sound file, so you can make your own practice recordings.