Morse Code Numbers and Punctuation, and the Pattern That Makes Digits Easy

The ten digits in Morse code are all the same length. Five elements each, every time, with no exceptions. That single fact does most of the work of learning them.

The digits 1 to 5 open with that many dots and fill the rest with dashes, so 3 is ...--. The digits 6 to 9 open with dashes and fill the rest with dots, counting from one, so 8 is ---... Zero is five dashes, -----. Punctuation has no pattern like that. Most marks are six elements long and have to be learned one at a time, though only a handful ever come up.

Morse is written here the way it is sent: a space between letters, and / between words. So .---- ..--- ...-- is 123, and -.-. --- -.. . / ....- is CODE 4.

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The ten digits in Morse code

Every digit is five elements. They are not all the same duration, though, because a dash lasts three times as long as a dot. Time is measured in units: a dot is 1 unit, a dash is 3, and the gap between elements inside one character is

1. Zero takes more than twice as long as 5.

Here is the same set as plain text, ready to copy:

1  .----
2  ..---
3  ...--
4  ....-
5  .....
6  -....
7  --...
8  ---..
9  ----.
0  -----

The rule fits in two lines. For 1 to 5, count the dots. For 6 to 9, count the dashes and add five. Five dashes is zero.

That means you never have to recall ten separate patterns. You recall one shape and a starting side.

Two ways to remember the digits

Both of these are exact, not rough aids. Check them against the table above and they hold for all ten.

Swap every dot for a dash and every dash for a dot. A digit turns into the digit five places away from it. 1 becomes 6, 2 becomes 7, 3 becomes 8, 4 becomes 9, and 5 becomes 0. The relationship works in both directions, so the top half of the set gives you the bottom half for free.

Read a digit backwards. You get ten minus that digit: 1 read backwards is 9, 2 is 8, 3 is 7, 4 is 6. The patterns for 5 and 0 read the same in either direction, which is a useful thing to notice when you are copying by ear and lose track of where a character started.

The other five digits are the mirror of these, so the table only needs half the set.

How long a number takes to send

Speed is quoted in words per minute, measured against the reference word PARIS, which is exactly 50 units long including the gap that follows it. From that you get one formula, and it is the only arithmetic in Morse you need:

Dot length in seconds = 1.2 divided by the WPM.

At 20 words per minute the dot is 60 ms. A dash is 180 ms. The gap between elements inside a character is 60 ms, between characters 180 ms, and between words 420 ms.

Now take the number 2026. The digits are 15, 19, 15 and 11 units, which is 60, plus three character gaps of 3 units, which is 9. Total 69 units.

A four-digit number is 69 units against the 50 units of an average word. Numbers are slow, and they are also the part of a message that cannot be guessed from context. A missed letter in a word is usually recoverable. A missed digit in a phone number is not. The guide to Morse code timing and WPM works through units and speed in full.

The punctuation marks

The standard fixes sixteen punctuation marks. Charts, this one included, usually carry a couple more that people type every day: the exclamation mark and the dollar sign are the usual additions.

The same list, ready to copy:

.   .-.-.-
,   --..--
?   ..--..
'   .----.
!   -.-.--
/   -..-.
(   -.--.
)   -.--.-
&   .-...
:   ---...
;   -.-.-.
=   -...-
+   .-.-.
-   -....-
_   ..--.-
"   .-..-.
$   ...-..-
@   .--.-.

Twelve of those marks are six elements long, five are five elements, and the dollar sign is seven, which makes it the longest single character in the code by element count. It is not the longest by time. Five characters tie at 19 units: the comma, the exclamation mark, the apostrophe, the right bracket and the digit 0. The dollar sign runs 17, because dashes cost three units and dots cost one.

Four marks cover almost everything you will ever want to send: the full stop, the comma, the question mark and the slash. The slash earns its place because it separates parts of a compound thing, as in a date or a fraction.

Three marks that are also prosigns

A prosign is a procedure signal, and the thing that makes it a prosign is the spacing: it is sent as one unbroken string with no letter gaps inside it. Three punctuation marks share their pattern exactly with a prosign, which is worth knowing before you wonder why your decoder printed something unexpected.

The best known prosign is the distress signal. SOS is sent as ...---..., three dots, three dashes, three dots, run together with no gaps between the groups. Sent as three separate letters, with 3-unit gaps, it is a different thing. It also does not stand for Save Our Souls or Save Our Ship. Those phrases were invented after the fact, and the pattern was chosen because it is unmistakable and easy to send. There is more on both topics in SOS in Morse code and in the guide to prosigns and Q-codes.

Numbers and punctuation in a real message

Punctuation is a character like any other. It takes the normal 3-unit gap before and after it, not a smaller one, so a full stop at the end of a sentence is sent the same way a letter would be. Here are four examples you can copy and play back.

A question, with the question mark as its own character:

WHAT TIME IS IT?
.-- .... .- - / - .. -- . / .. ... / .. - ..--..

A price, mixing the dollar sign, digits and a full stop used as a decimal point:

$25.50
...-..- ..--- ..... .-.-.- ..... -----

A date, where the digits sit next to ordinary letters:

5 SEP 2026
..... / ... . .--. / ..--- ----- ..--- -....

A compound number using the slash, sent as one word with no gap around the slash:

24/7
..--- ....- -..-. --...

I built MorseLab partly because of the problem those blocks show: long strings of digits are exactly where hand-written Morse goes wrong, and you cannot hear a mistake on paper. The translator plays a number back as a tone, a flash or a vibration so you can check it against the chart, and the reference section carries the digits, all the punctuation, the prosigns and the Q-codes together in one place.

Common mistakes

Getting the length of a digit wrong. Every digit is five elements. If you have written four or six, you have made an error, and this check catches it before anything else does.

Confusing 1 with the apostrophe. 1 is .---- and the apostrophe is .----., one dot longer. They are easy to mix up in writing and clearly different by ear.

Confusing 5 with H. 5 is ....., five dots. H is ...., four dots. The error signal is eight dots, ........, so a run of dots needs counting rather than guessing.

Hearing 0 as a row of Ts. T is a single dash, -. Zero is five dashes with 1-unit gaps between them, while five separate Ts would have 3-unit gaps. The only difference is spacing, which is why timing matters more than memorising shapes.

Confusing the full stop with the plus sign. The full stop is .-.-.- and the plus is .-.-., one dot shorter, and that plus sign is also the AR prosign.

Confusing the slash with X. The slash is -..-. and X is -..-. Again one dot separates them.

Confusing the left bracket with Y. The bracket is -.--. and Y is -.--.

Writing Morse with the wrong characters. A Unicode middle dot, a bullet or a long dash all look correct on a page and break the moment someone copies the text into a translator. Use a plain full stop and a plain hyphen.

Sending punctuation nobody is expecting. Semicolons, underscores and brackets are in the standard, but they are rare in real traffic. A receiving operator is far more likely to write down what they think they heard than to recognise an unusual mark.

Questions people ask

What are the numbers 1 to 10 in Morse code?

They run .----, ..---, ...--, ....-, ....., -...., --..., ---.., ----. for 1 to 9. There is no single character for 10. It is written as two digits, 1 then 0, so .---- ----- with a normal character gap between them.

Is there a trick for remembering Morse code numbers?

Two, and both are exact. Count the dots for 1 to 5, then count the dashes and add five for 6 to 9. And swapping every dot for a dash and every dash for a dot turns any digit into the digit five places away from it, so learning half the set gives you the other half.

Why is every digit five elements long?

It keeps the digits distinct from the letters, which run one to four elements, and it keeps them a fixed width so a receiving operator can tell where one digit ends and the next begins. The cost is time: digits take much longer to send than letters do.

What is the Morse code for a full stop and a comma?

The full stop is .-.-.- and the comma is --..--. The question mark is ..--... Those three plus the slash, -..-., cover most of what you will ever need.

How do you write a phone number in Morse code?

Digit by digit, with a normal character gap between each one, and no special treatment for a leading zero. Group the number the way you would say it out loud, using word gaps between the groups, and send the plus sign of an international prefix as .-.-. if you use one. Numbers are slow, so a long string is worth breaking into groups of three or four.

Can I learn the numbers and punctuation in a day?

You can memorise the chart in a day. Numbers especially, because there are only two rules behind them. Being able to copy them by ear is a different skill and takes weeks of daily practice, and nobody can shorten that honestly. The honest answer on learning Morse in a day goes into what a day actually buys you.

Do operators actually send punctuation?

Rarely, beyond the full stop, comma, question mark and slash. Most of the sixteen marks in the standard exist for completeness rather than for daily use. Numbers, on the other hand, come up constantly, which is why they are worth drilling until they are automatic.

What is the longest character in Morse code?

By element count, the dollar sign, ...-..-, at seven elements. By duration, five characters tie at 19 units: the comma --..--, the exclamation mark -.-.--, the apostrophe .----., the right bracket -.--.- and the digit 0 -----. That is 1.14 seconds at 20 words per minute.

How should I practise the digits?

Listen to them at full speed from the start rather than slowing the characters down, and stretch the gaps between characters instead if you need thinking time. Those are two different methods, and they are not rivals: the Koch method sets the order in which you add characters and keeps the speed high, while Farnsworth spacing stretches the gaps. They combine, and combining them is the usual advice. The comparison of Koch and Farnsworth sets out how they fit together.

Keep reading

• The Morse code alphabet chart, for the 26 letters alongside these digits and marks.
• Morse code timing and WPM, where the units used throughout this page come from.
• Prosigns, Q-codes and the NATO alphabet, for the shorthand that shares patterns with punctuation.
• How to write your name in Morse code, the natural next step once the chart is familiar.
• How a Morse code translator works, if you would rather check a long number than count it.

Want to try it now? MorseLab is free on iPhone and Android.