I Love You in Morse Code

I love you in Morse code runs 24 signals: 12 dots and 12 dashes. A short gap separates letters and a longer one separates words, so the spacing carries meaning just like the marks do. Press Play sound above to hear it, or Copy to paste it into a message. If the full phrase is too long for what you have in mind, ILY and 143 carry the same message.

You can say it by touch, by light, by sound or in writing. Choose the one the other person can actually receive.

By touch, the pause after the E decides everything. Keep it clearly longer than the gaps inside a word, or the receiver feels LOVE and YOU as one long run.

ILY is the three initials. 143 counts the letters in each word: I (1), love (4), you (3); Dictionary.com traces it to 1990s pagers.

ILY wins on length at 10 signals. Digits cost more, since each one takes five signals in Morse, so 143 needs 15. Choose by the reader rather than the count: 143 is a number code many people already know, while ILY in dots and dashes looks like initials only to someone expecting it.

There are 24 signals in total, split evenly into 12 dots and 12 dashes. Some pages print 21; the counts below follow ITU-R M.1677-1, where a dot is one unit and a dash is three.

Counting every gap, the phrase is 93 units long. That is 11.16 seconds at 10 words per minute (WPM) and 5.58 seconds at 20 WPM.

Each reply keeps the original phrase intact and adds one word after a longer word gap.

TOO is all dashes, which makes it an easy reply to tap back: one press, three presses, three presses.

On a bead bracelet the phrase needs 31 pieces: 12 round dot beads, 12 long dash beads, 5 small spacers between letters and 2 rings between words. The Make it yours panel estimates that strand at about 11.2 in with 6 mm beads and 7.5 in with 4 mm beads, longer than the 7 in bracelet it measures against.

ILY is the practical choice for a small wrist or a ring band. With 6 mm beads it comes to about 4.1 in, which leaves room for cord and a clasp. Whichever you pick, mark the start so the wearer reads it in the right direction. A single word is another option: love in Morse code is 12 signals and needs 15 beads.

For a different wrist size, the Morse code bracelet generator recalculates the strand. For skin, the Morse code tattoo generator draws a stencil you can check before the appointment.

The errors we found on other I love you pages fall into four kinds.

• V and U swapped: V is ...- and U is ..-, so one extra dot changes the letter.
• Lost gaps: drop the space between Y and O and the run -.----- matches no letter; drop the slash after LOVE and two words become one.
• Lookalike characters: em dashes and ellipsis symbols resemble Morse in some fonts, yet they are different characters and a pasted copy may not decode.
• Wrong counts: a bead list built from "21 symbols" comes up three beads short.