Ц ц — ts
«ts» is a consonant of Kazakh, the “Kazakh Cyrillic” script, read as “ts as in "cats"”. Like the ts at the end of "cats". The Kazakh alphabet has 42 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. Only in borrowed words. It appears, for example, in the word “Дәрігер рецепті” — prescription.
In short
| Character | Ц ц |
| Name | ts |
| Sound | ts as in "cats" |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 32nd of 42, its neighbours in the course are һ and ч, appears in 36 words of this site.
How it sounds
Like the ts at the end of "cats"
The character in the “only in loanwords” group
Six signs that never occur in native Kazakh words. They came in with borrowed vocabulary, and the new Latin alphabet has already dropped them.
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, 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 — 42 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 Kazakh character ц read?
As “ts as in "cats"” — it is a consonant of the “Kazakh Cyrillic” script. Like the ts at the end of "cats".
What is the letter ц called?
Ts. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Kazakh script: it is called “ts” and reads as “ts as in "cats"”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ц be confused with?
Only in borrowed words. Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.