Farnsworth timing & why E, I, and S confuse you

Farnsworth timing keeps the inside of each letter at full speed while stretching the space between letters. You hear real Morse character shapes, but you get thinking room between them.

Play E I S (wide) Play E I S (tight)

Or open the full interactive timing demo.

The short letters problem

• E = ·
• I = · ·
• S = · · ·
• H = · · · ·

At slow character speed, brains count. At high character speed with no gap, short letters blur into one continuous buzz. Wide inter-character gaps fix the second problem without inviting the first.

What MorseTime does

Default lessons use elevated character WPM with wide letter spacing (7-unit gaps vs standard 3). You can tighten spacing in settings as your ear improves. Elements never slow down to “easy” 5 WPM mush.

Character WPM vs effective WPM

Character WPM describes dit length. Effective WPM describes overall characters-per-minute once gaps are stretched. Farnsworth deliberately makes effective speed lower than character speed while learning. Calculator: WPM calculator.

Practice tip

When E and I collide, don't slow the dits — widen spacing and take more groups. Mistakes are data, not failure.