LingoflyTz tz — te zeta
«te zeta» is a digraph of the Basque script, read as “plain ts, as in cats”. A "ts" said with the flat tongue of z — like the ts in "cats". For example, in the word “atzo” — yesterday. The Basque alphabet has 27 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. This character does not count as a letter of the alphabet. Batzuk — "some", atzo — "yesterday". The ear tells ts and tz apart exactly the way it tells s and z apart.
In short
| Character | Tz tz |
| Name | te zeta |
| Sound | plain ts, as in cats |
| What it is | a digraph |
In our course the character comes 31st of 32: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are tx and tt, appears in 445 words of this site.
How it sounds
A "ts" said with the flat tongue of z — like the ts in "cats"
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- yesterday
The character in the “z, s, x and their pairs” group
The heart of Basque phonetics: three sounds, z, s and x, and each has its own "ts": tz, ts and tx. z is a plain English s, s has a hint of "sh" in it, x is simply "sh", and tx is "ch". Native ears tell all six apart.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «te zeta» it is “plain ts, as in cats”, as in the word “atzo”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 27 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Basque character tz read?
As “plain ts, as in cats” — it is a digraph of the Basque script. A "ts" said with the flat tongue of z — like the ts in "cats". For example, in the word “atzo” — yesterday.
What is the sign tz called?
Te zeta. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Basque script: it is called “te zeta” and reads as “plain ts, as in cats”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.