You know the problem. You’re working with a letter, but how do you clarify that letter? A phonetic alphabet with Morse code combines the two common ways to represent it: a NATO spelling word (e.g., Alfa for “A”) and International Morse code, using dots and dashes instead of letters. Both systems use the same 26-letter alphabet, so one letter maps to both a NATO spelling word and an International Morse rhythm.
It’s important to understand the boundary between these two systems, because you shouldn’t treat Alfa or Bravo as Morse symbols. Instead, those are words that map back to individual Latin letters. That means you can say them out loud in noisy voice conditions, or they might represent audible tones, light pulses, or on-off signal durations. In essence, they represent dits and dahs.
Combined Phonetic and Morse Reference
So let’s combine the NATO phonetic alphabet (the aviation spelling alphabet) with Morse code. This chart provides the mapping from both systems to the 26 Latin letters. It shows what each system represents:
Alphabet Letter
NATO Spelling Word
International Morse
Each letter is represented in both systems, though we have to make sure that we don’t treat NATO spelling words like Morse signals themselves. Rather, Morse patterns represent audible tones, light pulses, or on-off signal durations. So this chart isn’t a secret code. Instead, it’s simply a bridge between the spoken world and timed dot-and-dash signals.
In other words, this is simply an International Morse code chart combined with the NATO spelling alphabet, allowing you to look up both representations. You can also use both systems together. First, say the NATO word; then send the matching Morse pattern. Here’s how you can use this combined reference:
Say the NATO word (“Echo”).
Send the corresponding letter’s Morse code (E is .).
Separate characters by a space.
Use a slash between words.
Remember the character gap.
Use the word boundary.
So how does this work? If you want to use this chart to confirm what a letter looks like, follow these steps:
Start at the top of the alphabet and scan down.
Look for the correct letter.
Note that within a Morse pattern, the dots and dashes stay in fixed positions.
A to M Phonetic Words and Morse
But since both encodings share the same alphabet, we can pair them together. Let’s start with the first half of the A–M range, pairing each NATO/aviation spelling word with the exact International Morse pattern for that same letter:
Letter
Spelling Word
Morse Pattern
A
Alfa
.-
B
Bravo
-...
C
Charlie
-.-.
D
Delta
-..
E
Echo
.
F
Foxtrot
..-.
G
Golf
--.
H
Hotel
....
I
India
..
J
Juliett
.---
K
Kilo
-.-.
L
Lima
.-..
M
Mike
--
N to Z Phonetic Words and Morse
And here’s the second half of the A–Z chart, again mapping letters to their NATO/aviation spelling words and Morse patterns:
Letter
Spelling Word
Morse Pattern
N
November
-.
O
Oscar
P
Papa
.--.
Q
Quebec
--.-
R
Romeo
.-.
S
Sierra
...
T
Tango
U
Uniform
..-
V
Victor
...-
W
Whiskey
.--
X
X-ray
-..-
Y
Yankee
-.--
Z
Zulu
--..
Using the Signals and Tools
Now let’s walk through how to find some of the signals, starting with E, Echo, which is represented by just a single dot (.), and T, Tango, represented by a dash (-). Note how the order within a Morse pattern is fixed — all four letters in J Juliett, for instance, are dits followed by dahs. Similarly, the pattern for A is always .-, while the pattern for M is always --.
If you’d like, you can copy Morse, play it, open it in a translator, download, or share it. The Morse alphabet chart is available in our Morse-to-text tool, as well as text-to-Morse.
To verify that you’ve heard a specific signal correctly, use our Morse translator, where you can enter a Morse string into the input box. Alternatively, you can use our text-to-Morse converter, which will take supported English letters, numbers, punctuation, and explicit prosigns and translate them into International Morse. For the reverse process, try converting Morse to text.