Cyrillic Small Letter Tse

Like the end of “cats.” Say t and s as one sound, no vowel between them. In Russian, ц is always hard. In Ukrainian it can be hard or soft; a soft ц is written ць, as in палець (finger), with the tongue raised toward the roof of the mouth.

The letter belongs to the ninth-century Slavic Christian writing tradition linked to Cyril and Methodius, missionaries who helped create writing for Slavic languages. The oldest dated Cyrillic inscription on stone is from 921.