Morse Code Mnemonics for Every Letter, A to Z

Stressed syllables are in capitals. Press play on a code and say the phrase along with it: the capitals should land on the long tones. Each letter links to its own page.

Where each phrase comes from: W is Wikipedia's table of syllabic mnemonics, M means it is also in Magnetic Memory Method's list, C is the "Morse Code for the Radio Amateur" course (morsecodeclassnet.com), and WM is Wikipedia's main Morse code article. The one-word column is Douglas Harder's list from the University of Waterloo. The last column is how long the letter itself lasts at 18 WPM, from the first tone to the last.

Now test yourself by ear in the Morse code quiz: it plays a character and you pick it from four of about the same length. For whole words and messages rather than single letters, see Morse code phrases.

A syllabic mnemonic maps stress onto length. Every stressed syllable is a dah, and every unstressed one a dit. Take C, -.-.: CO (dah), ca (dit), CO (dah), la (dit). Say "CO-ca CO-la" with a heavy beat on each CO and you have spoken the letter.

Two habits make them work better. Magnetic Memory Method says to "speak each example out loud and really stress the shortness and longness". The "Morse Code for the Radio Amateur" course writes the sound itself next to the phrase, as in "D: DOG did it! DAH-di-dit.", and says you may find mnemonics "of some help". Saying di and DAH out loud trains your ear, not just your memory.

Don't hunt for the "official" set. Wikipedia says there is "no well-known complete set of syllabic mnemonics for English", only phrases for single letters. In Britain, many people learned Morse with phrases like these, among them "God Save the Queen" for Q and "Did she like it?" for F. If a phrase on the list doesn't fit your accent, pick another with the same stress pattern.

Douglas Harder of the University of Waterloo uses the shape of a written word instead of its sound. Tall letters (b d f g h j k l p q t y, and capitals) are dahs; short letters (a c e i m n o r s u v w x z) are dits. Each word has exactly as many letters as the code has elements:

• bean for B: tall b, then short e a n, so -...
• yell for Y: tall y, short e, tall l l, so -.--
• plaq for Q: tall p l, short a, tall q, so --.-

He built the system after years of failed attempts with other memory aids, which he found "as difficult to remember as the original". He also says to make the words your own: if your name is Dan, use it for D instead of "dam".

Numbers need no phrases, because the digits follow a pattern. Harder's rule: for 1 to 5, count "one two three four five" and send dots up to the number, then dashes; for 6 to 9, count "six seven eight nine ten" and send dashes up to the number, then dots. 0 is "ten": five dashes.

Wikipedia lists syllable phrases for the common punctuation marks:

Every digit and mark has its own page with sound: see Morse code numbers and Morse code punctuation.

A mnemonic adds a step. You hear the tones, recall the phrase, then name the letter. Wikipedia's article opens with the verdict: because every mnemonic "requires a two-step mental translation between sound and character, none of these systems are useful for using manual Morse at practical speeds."

The table shows why with numbers. At 18 WPM, E lasts 0.07 s, and J, Q and Y last 0.87 s. Saying "GOD SAVE the QUEEN", even in your head, has to fit inside 0.87 s, and the next letter follows 0.2 s later.

Radio teachers say the same from experience:

• Morse Code Ninja: "Don't use Morse code sound-alikes! It is tough to let go of this mnemonic as you transition to higher speeds." Learning with memory aids starts you at conscious decoding, which can't go faster than 10 to 13 WPM.
• ARRL's QEX article on Farnsworth timing (1990) links counting at slow speeds to "the oft-mentioned 13-WPM barrier".
• ARRL's learning page: learn the alphabet "by the way it sounds".

To be fair to mnemonics: they can get a letter into your head on day one. Harder writes that you can learn to send at about 8 WPM in about a week of practice with his words and a phone app, and that by then you are probably no longer recalling them. He also says receiving is harder. For realistic timelines, see how long it takes to learn Morse code.

1. 1Say the phrase once while the letter plays in the table above.
2. 2Play it again and listen without the phrase. Hear the rhythm, not the words.
3. 3Test yourself by ear in the Morse code quiz, in its "Hear it" mode.
4. 4When two letters blur, drill their family in the sound-alike drill: E I S H 5, T M O 0, A U V 4, N D B 6, R L F, W J P 1, G Z Q 7 or K C Y X.
5. 5Move to the Koch course. Every lesson is copied by ear at full speed, too fast for a phrase, so the sound itself becomes what you know.

The whole method is in how to learn Morse code by ear.

Other languages map their own sounds onto dits and dahs (all from Wikipedia):

• Czech: a long vowel (á é í ó ú ý) is a dah, a short one a dit. A, .-, is "akát" (acacia).
• Polish: a syllable with an "o" is a dah, any other vowel a dit. A is "azot" (nitrogen).
• Hebrew: devised in 1922 by Zalman Cohen, a signaller in the Haganah. The hiriq vowel (/i/) is a dit; patah and qamatz (/a/) are dahs.
• Indonesian: taught in Scouting, with the o vowel for every dash and the other vowels for dots. A is "alok".

Some systems use pictures instead of words. Baden-Powell put a visual chart in the Girl Guides handbook in 1918. Another draws R, .-., as a racecar in profile: two wheels for the dits and the body for the dah.

The Morse tree, or Morse map, puts E and T at the top, dits to the left and dahs to the right, with each layer one element longer. It is a neat picture of the whole code. Morse Code Ninja's advice is not to learn from it, or from any visual representation. To look up a character, use the Morse code alphabet chart. For printed practice, the worksheet maker prints a chart or exercises with an answer key.

Play each letter in the table, then see how many you can name by ear in the Morse code quiz.