A in Morse code

Played as sound, A is a quick tick and then a tone held three times as long: di-dah. Say it out loud with the weight on the second beat and you have the rhythm.

Memory phrases work the same way. A light syllable stands for a dot and a stressed one for a dash:

• a-PART:

  the light "a" is the dot, the stressed PART is the dash.

• say AHH:

  a quick "say", then a long, open AHH.

• at:

  in Douglas Harder's one-word system a short letter is a dot and a tall one a dash, so short a, tall t.

Use a phrase to get started, then let it go. At 18 WPM the letter is over before you could say "a-part", so the goal is to know di-dah as a sound, the way you know a word.

More memory phrases

A has only two elements, so changing any one of them gives you another letter. These are the ones beginners mix up:

• N:

  -. holds the same two sounds as .- in the opposite order. Ask which came first: the short one means A.

• E and I:

  . is A without its dash, and .. is A with the dash cut to a dot. If nothing long sounded, it was not A.

• R and W:

  .-. and .-- start exactly like A and add one more element. Wait for the letter gap before you write anything down.

• M:

  -- is two long sounds, the dash version of A's opening dot.

The Sound-alike drill plays pairs like A and N back to back until the difference is automatic, and the full alphabet chart shows where A sits among all 26 letters.

• Write it:

  a period and then a hyphen, .- with a space before the next letter. A slash marks the gap between words.

• Tap it:

  one quick tap, then a press held about three times as long. The pause before the next letter is three dots long.

• Flash it:

  a short blink and a long one. The light on this page plays at 7 WPM, under three flashes a second, and the Flashlight signaler sends whole words with your phone's light.

In a word, A keeps its own two elements and gets a three-unit gap on each side. AREA is .- .-. . .-, which starts and ends on A and lasts 1.8 seconds at 18 WPM. To spell any other word, type it into the Morse code translator.

Radio operators use A inside signals that are sent as one run, with no letter gap. The ITU standard ends every telegram with the cross signal .-.-., A run into R, which operators call AR and which also stands for the plus sign. The wait signal, .-..., is A run into S, and it doubles as an unofficial code for the ampersand.

A also stands in for a digit. When both stations know a number is coming, operators may send cut numbers, and A is the cut for 1: two elements in place of five, which saves 12 units each time.