Timing at 20 WPM
International Morse timing is measured in units: a dot is 1 unit, a dash 3, the gap inside a character 1, the gap between letters 3 and the gap between words 7. At 20 words per minute, one unit is 1200 ÷ 20 = 60 ms.
| Character | Morse | Sounds like | Units | Time | Gap after |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | -- | dah-dah | 7 | 420 ms | 3 units (180 ms) |
| A | .- | di-dah | 5 | 300 ms | 3 units (180 ms) |
| Y | -.-- | dah-di-dah-dah | 13 | 780 ms | 3 units (180 ms) |
| D | -.. | dah-di-dit | 7 | 420 ms | 3 units (180 ms) |
| A | .- | di-dah | 5 | 300 ms | 3 units (180 ms) |
| Y | -.-- | dah-di-dah-dah | 13 | 780 ms | — |
In total, MAYDAY is 65 units — 3.90 seconds at 20 WPM: 6 characters, 6 dots and 11 dashes. At a beginner's 5 WPM it would take 15.60 seconds.
Sound it out
Operators learn Morse as sound, not as dots to count. Say “di” for a dot inside a character, “dit” for a final dot and “dah” for a dash, with a pause between letters:
dah-dah di-dah dah-di-dah-dah dah-di-dit di-dah dah-di-dah-dah
Letters in MAYDAY that are easy to mix up
These letters differ from the ones in MAYDAY by a single dot or dash — one flipped element, or one extra or missing at the end — so they are the usual misreadings when you are copying by ear or by light:
| Letter | Morse | Easily confused with |
|---|---|---|
| M | -- | A (.-), G (--.), N (-.), O (---) |
| A | .- | E (.), I (..), M (--), R (.-.) |
| Y | -.-- | C (-.-.), K (-.-), X (-..-) |
| D | -.. | B (-...), G (--.), K (-.-), N (-.) |
About MAYDAY
MAYDAY can be spelled in Morse — six letters — but it is not a Morse signal. Mayday is the spoken (radiotelephone) distress call; the Morse equivalent is SOS. US maritime rules (47 CFR Part 80) define the radiotelephony distress signal as the word 'Mayday', pronounced as the French 'm'aider'.
The word was introduced for cross-Channel flights in February 1923, when British newspapers reported that, because the letter S is hard to distinguish by telephone, 'S.O.S.' would give way to 'May-day', the phonetic equivalent of the French for 'help me'. It is often credited to Frederick Stanley Mockford, a radio officer at Croydon Airport, though word historians note that this attribution is not documented in the 1923 reports. The 1927 International Radiotelegraph Convention in Washington adopted Mayday as the radiotelephone distress call alongside SOS for telegraphy.
Related radio abbreviations
| Abbreviation | Morse | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| SOS | ... --- ... | The Morse (radiotelegraph) distress signal |
MAYDAY in other codes
| NATO phonetic alphabet | Mike Alfa Yankee Delta Alfa Yankee |
|---|---|
| Binary (UTF-8) | 01001101 01000001 01011001 01000100 01000001 01011001 |
Convert your own text with the Morse code translator, the NATO alphabet converter or the binary translator, or print the Morse code alphabet.