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Morse Code Translator

Translate text to Morse code or decode Morse to English online, then play it as sound, light or vibration at true timing. Free, with no sign-up – and it all runs in your browser.

Up to 5,000 characters

Try an example:

Morse code
No translation yet

Each letter shows here with its dots and dashes. Select one to play from it.

of 0.0s

The Morse code alphabet at true timing

Each character is drawn to scale: a dash is three dots long and every gap is one dot. It works as a Morse code dictionary you can play: select any character to hear it and see how it is timed.

Numbers

See the full Morse code alphabet chart, with accented letters and signals

Examples

Check any of these by hand against the Morse code alphabet chart. Each one is a Morse code sample you can play: pick SOS, Hello, I love you or Help under the empty box, or paste any line into the translator and press Play.

Text to Morse code

  • SOS

    ... --- ...

  • HELLO

    .... . .-.. .-.. ---

  • I LOVE YOU

    .. / .-.. --- ...- . / -.-- --- ..-

  • HELP

    .... . .-.. .--.

  • 73 (best regards, in radio shorthand)

    --... ...--

And the other way, from Morse to English:

  • .... .. / - .... . .-. .

    HI THERE

  • -.-. --.-

    CQ (calling any station)

  • --. --- --- -.. / -- --- .-. -. .. -. --.

    GOOD MORNING

The whole alphabet, the numbers 0 to 9, punctuation and accented letters each have a page with sound. The most famous signal of all has its own page: SOS in Morse code. For hello, I love you and other words, see Morse code phrases.

How to use the Morse code translator

  1. Type or paste your message into the box. Text to Morse is the default; if you paste dots and dashes, the translator offers to switch to Morse to text.

  2. For Morse to English, put one space between letters and a slash (/) between words, like .... .. / - .... . .-. . for HI THERE. Three spaces also count as a word gap.

  3. Pick a code table if your message isn’t International Morse: American, Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese or Korean.

  4. Press Play to hear it, or switch to Light or Vibrate. Set the speed (5 to 40 WPM) and the tone (300 to 1000 Hz) on the sliders.

  5. Copy the result, share it as a link or a puzzle, or download it as a WAV or MP3 file or a text file.

Common mistakes when decoding

  • No gap between words. Without a slash or three spaces, the words run into one. The translator reads what it gets, so add the gaps where the words should break.

  • Letters run together. HI sent as ...... with no space is one code that International Morse doesn’t have, so it shows as ?. Put one space after every letter: .... ...

  • A swapped dot and dash. .- is A but -. is N. If a word comes out almost right, check the letter that looks wrong against the alphabet chart.

Try it in the translator

What the translator does

A Morse code translator turns letters, numbers and punctuation into dots and dashes, and reads dots and dashes back as text. This one is a code translator for letters, not a language translator: it works both ways, in eight code tables, and plays the result so you can hear it.

Text to Morse code

Type English and the Morse code encoder writes each letter as dots and dashes as you go, with one space between letters and a slash between words: HELLO becomes .... . .-.. .-.. ---. Numbers and the ITU punctuation marks are covered too: every digit is five signals, so 1 is .---- and 0 is -----. Morse has no capital letters, so you can type in either case and the translator writes the text back in capitals.

To copy it one word per line or with · and — symbols, use the English to Morse code translator.

Morse code to English: decode and decipher

Paste Morse and the decoder reads it back as text, even with the look-alikes copy and paste produces (·, •, —, –, _). Tap it in with the dot and dash keys, or have the result read aloud. Codes that aren’t in the table show as ?.

Morse is a public code, not a cipher, so as a secret code translator it works best as a game: share it as a puzzle and your friend types the answer. To read a message letter by letter, open Morse code to English.

Hear it, see it, feel it

  • SoundA radio tone (sine), the CW sound radio operators use, or the clicks of a telegraph sounder, at the speed and pitch you set.
  • LightA lamp strip in the translator flashes with each dot and dash, the way a signal lamp sends it. It pauses if your device asks for reduced motion.
  • VibrationOn Android phones the message buzzes in your hand; on an iPhone (iOS 18 or later) you feel a tick as each dot and dash starts and ends.
  • The tapeA Morse code visualizer that draws every letter with its own dots and dashes to length; select a letter to play from there.
  • Timing and soundFarnsworth spacing (letters at full speed, longer gaps between them), extra word spacing, repeat and volume. To keep a copy, download the message as a WAV or MP3 file, or make sound files with presets in the Morse code generator, or pick a ready-made clip from the Morse code sound effects.

Morse code in other alphabets

Pick the code table above the box before you type or paste.

The translator’s eight code tables
Code tableUsed for
InternationalThe ITU standard: English and most languages written in Latin letters, plus É, Ä, Ö, Ü, Ñ and the other accented letters in on-air use
American (Railroad)The original 1840s landline code, with its spaced letters and long dashes
Russian (Cyrillic)Russian and other Cyrillic text
GreekGreek letters
HebrewHebrew letters, final forms sent as their base letter
ArabicArabic letters
Japanese (Wabun)Kana, sent with the Japanese Wabun code (Wabun code translator)
Korean (SKATS)Hangul, sent with the Korean SKATS mapping
  • Russian Morse code: ПРИВЕТ (hello) is .--. .-. .. .-- . -. Many Cyrillic letters share a pattern with a Latin one, so П is sent like P.
  • American Morse code: O is two dots with a space inside the letter, where International O is ---. Read more about American Morse code and Japanese Morse code.
  • Morse code in Spanish uses the International table plus Ñ (--.--), so pick International for Spanish, French or German. Military Morse code is International Morse too.

Morse code timing and the PARIS standard

The translator follows the International Morse code of ITU-R Recommendation M.1677-1. Morse is timed in units: a dot is one unit and a dash is three. The gap inside a letter is one unit, between letters three, and between words seven. Speed is counted in words per minute using the standard word PARIS, which is exactly 50 units long with the word gap after it, so at 20 WPM one unit lasts 60 milliseconds. Playback, the light and the downloaded audio all use these units, which is why the result sounds like real CW and not a string of evenly spaced beeps.

PARIS on a 50-unit rulerP: dot dash dash dot; A: dot dash; R: dot dash dot; I: dot dot; S: dot dot dot; then a 7-unit gap between words. A dot lasts 1 unit, a dash 3, the gap inside a letter 1, between letters 3 and between words 7.PARIS01020304050Dot 1Letter gap 3Dash 3Word gap 7
The word PARIS in Morse code on a 50-unit ruler. Each tick is one unit.
Dot
1 unit
Dash
3 units
Gap inside a letter
1 unit
Gap between letters
3 units
Gap between words
7 units
One unit at 20 WPM
60 ms
Practise the timing on a keyer

Learn it the Koch way

Learn every character at full speed from the first lesson. Start with K and M, then add the next character each time you copy 90% of a lesson correctly.

Start the Koch trainer
  1. K
  2. M
  3. U
  4. R
  5. E
  6. S
  7. N
  8. A
  9. P
  10. T
  11. L
  12. W
  13. I
  14. .
  15. J
  16. Z
  17. =
  18. F
  19. O
  20. Y
  21. ,
  22. V
  23. G
  24. 5
  25. /
  26. Q
  27. 9
  28. 2
  29. H
  30. 3
  31. 8
  32. B
  33. ?
  34. 4
  35. 7
  36. C
  37. 1
  38. D
  39. 6
  40. 0
  41. X

Morse code tools

Decoders, senders, trainers and games. 51 tools, all free, no sign-up, and each one runs in your browser.

Show tools

Decode

All 5 decoders

Send

All 8 send tools

Practise

All 11 trainers

Make

All 13 make tools

Play

All 11 games

Codes

Latest guides

Read all guides

New to Morse? Read What is Morse code?, Is Morse code still used? and Is Morse code a language?

Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about the translator

Can Morse code be translated?

Yes. Morse code is a fixed table of dots and dashes, so any message can be translated letter by letter in either direction. Type text into the translator above to get Morse, or paste Morse to read it in English. For Morse you hear rather than read, the audio file decoder and the microphone decoder turn beeps into text.

How do I decode a Morse code message?

Paste it into the translator and switch to Morse to text: the English appears as you type. Leave one space between letters and a slash between words, so .. / .-.. --- ...- . / -.-- --- ..- reads I LOVE YOU. By hand, look each pattern up in the Morse code alphabet. For Morse you hear or see, the audio, microphone, light and picture decoders read it for you.

Can Google Translate translate Morse code?

No. Morse code is not one of the languages Google Translate supports, so it can’t turn dots and dashes into words or back. Gboard, Google’s phone keyboard, has a Morse input for typing in dots and dashes, but it doesn’t read a message back to you. Paste the message into the translator above instead, or use the audio decoder for a recording or video.

Is there an app that can decipher Morse code?

You don’t need to install one. This translator and its decoders work in any phone browser: paste dots and dashes, play a recording, point the microphone decoder at the sound or the light decoder at a flashing lamp. Nothing is uploaded, and you can add the site to your home screen to open it like an app.

Is Morse code the same in every language?

No. Languages written in Latin letters share International Morse and add their accented letters, such as Ñ --.-- in Spanish. Russian, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic have their own tables built from the same dots and dashes, and Russian П is sent like P, .--.. Japanese uses the Wabun code and Korean the SKATS mapping. The translator has all eight tables: pick one above the box.

What is the Morse code alphabet in English?

The International Morse alphabet has 26 letters, from A .- and B -... to Y -.-- and Z --.., plus the digits 0 to 9 and the punctuation marks. E is the shortest letter, a single dot, and T is a single dash. The chart below the translator draws every letter to scale, and the Morse code alphabet page lists them all with sound.

Is 143 “I love you” in Morse code?

No. 143 is a pager-era number code for I love you (1, 4 and 3 are the letters in each word), not Morse code. In Morse, I love you is .. / .-.. --- ...- . / -.-- --- ..-, and the number 143 is .---- ....- ...--. The I love you in Morse code page plays it and links to tools that flash it or make it into a bracelet, necklace or tattoo.

How do I tap out Morse code?

Tap short for a dot and about three times as long for a dash, with a short pause between letters and a longer one between words. The Morse keyboard turns taps on one key or two, or a touch screen into letters as you go, so you can check what you sent. Knocking on a wall is usually tap code, a different code with its own translator.

Still have questions? Contact us

Trust and limits

This free Morse code translator works online in your browser: the text you type, the audio and the light are made on your device and nothing is uploaded.

A shared link carries the message after the # in the address, which never reaches our server.

The translator reads standard dots, dashes and gaps; it does not decode audio, which is what the audio file decoder is for. A message can be up to 5,000 characters. Characters a code table doesn’t have are left out and named under the box.

Every table is tested: each code decodes back to its own character and no two characters share a code. Timing follows ITU-R M.1677-1. Maintained by Translate Morse Code (independent site); last updated October 2026.