s, sz, z, zs, c, cs, dz, and dzs: Forms and Core Pattern

Hungarian s, sz, z, zs, c, cs, dz, and dzs represent eight consonants. The most important fact for an English speaker is that letter count and sound count are not the same: sz, zs, cs, dz, and dzs are multigraph letters, and each normally represents one consonant phoneme. Their values are stable in modern standard Hungarian. Extended distribution and difficult listening choices belong to the companion usage and contrasts pages.

The compact paradigm

English spelling creates two powerful traps. Hungarian s is English-like “sh,” while Hungarian sz is English-like “s.” In addition, English usually spells /t͡ʃ/ with ch and /d͡ʒ/ with j or g, but Hungarian writes cs and dzs.

The pairs sál–szál and sem–szem are true minimal pairs: only /ʃ/ versus /s/ changes. They show that s and sz cannot be treated as stylistic spellings of one sound.

Affricates are single consonants

An affricate begins with a complete closure and releases into friction. In c /t͡s/, cs /t͡ʃ/, dz /d͡z/, and dzs /d͡ʒ/, those two phases form one coordinated consonant—not a freely assembled sequence. This matters for alphabetization, spelling, length, and careful segmentation.

Dz and especially dzs are less frequent than c and cs. Dzs occurs mainly in loanwords such as dzsem “jam” and dzsungel “jungle,” while dz occurs in common words such as edz “train,” bodza “elderberry,” and madzag “string.” Their rarity is lexical, not a reason to split them into separate letter values.

There is one important length exception. A single written dz or dzs is commonly pronounced long between vowels or at the end of a word, as in bodza, edz, and bridzs. Word-initial dzs in dzsem and dzsungel is short. Hungarian usually leaves that predictable lexical length undoubled, but writes a doubling created by suffixation, as in eddze and briddzsel. This is a genuine limit on simple “one written letter, one duration” decoding.

Consonant length and multigraph spelling

Hungarian distinguishes short and long consonants. A long single-letter consonant is doubled: s–ss, z–zz, c–cc. A long multigraph is normally written by doubling only its first character:

The less common examples in the bottom rows are useful because they expose the spelling rule. You need not make them active A1 vocabulary. In ordinary words, hosszú and meccs already show the same principle.

The simplification does not apply across the boundary between two members of a compound. Hungarian preserves both complete multigraphs there: kulcs + csomó → kulcscsomó “key ring” and dísz + szemle → díszszemle “ceremonial review.” This spelling reveals the word’s internal structure.

Length can also arise productively when a suffix begins with v. With -val/-vel “with,” the v fully assimilates to many final consonants: busz + -val → busszal “by bus,” rács + -val → ráccsal “with a lattice,” and rizs + -vel → rizzsel “with rice.” The long consonant is pronounced and written.

At morpheme boundaries and in rapid speech, other assimilations can affect what is heard. Those patterns do not justify respelling a memorized word by ear; the assimilation forms page explains how morphology and orthography interact.

Vowels still control harmony

These eight consonants do not choose the harmonic form of a suffix. The vowels do: busszal uses back-vowel -val because busz contains u, while meccsel uses front-vowel -vel because meccs contains e. Assimilation then hides the v on the surface.

Accents remain structural too. In háromszor “three times,” á is long and sz is the /s/ letter. In gyümölcs, ü and ö are distinct front rounded vowels, while gy and cs are consonant multigraphs. Hungarian spelling is predictable only if neither diacritics nor multigraphs are discarded.

Stress stays at the beginning

Word stress normally falls on the first syllable. In edzés, csomag, and masszázs, stress the initial vowels e, o, and a respectively. English speakers sometimes transfer the later stress of a familiar-looking loanword such as English massage, but Hungarian adapts established loans to its own stress pattern. Consonant length is independent of stress, just as vowel length is.

Segmentation exercise

Segment each word into Hungarian letter units, then identify the target consonant.

1. szem
2. csésze
3. dzsem
4. edzés
5. hosszú
6. meccs

Answers: (1) sz-e-m: sz /s/. (2) cs-é-sz-e: cs /t͡ʃ/ and sz /s/. (3) dzs-e-m: dzs /d͡ʒ/. (4) e-dz-é-s: dz /d͡z/ and s /ʃ/. (5) h-o-ssz-ú: ssz is long sz /sː/. (6) m-e-ccs: ccs is long cs /t͡ʃː/. Notice that the accents in csésze and hosszú remain part of the vowel letters during segmentation.

Common Mistakes

1. Giving s its English value.

2. Reading sz as two consonants or as English sh.

3. Splitting the trigraph dzs.

4. Ignoring length after assimilation.

5. Moving stress to the familiar-looking end of a loanword.

Key Takeaways

Hungarian s is /ʃ/ and sz is /s/. Zs, cs, dz, and dzs must also be recognized as complete letter units, with c, cs, dz, and dzs functioning as affricates. Productive doubling uses the structural spellings ssz, zzs, ccs, ddz, and ddzs, although lexical dz and dzs may be pronounced long while remaining singly written. Word stress stays on the first syllable, and vowels—not these consonants—continue to determine suffix harmony.