Cursive Z

Cursive z is nothing like the printed z: a rounded hump at the top, then a descender loop below the baseline, the same tail the letter g ends with.

Cursive capital Z and lowercase z written on a four-line school ruling

Written in the traditional US school model — the looped, joined cursive of the Zaner-Bloser and D'Nealian copybooks, which is the model every sheet on this site is set in.

How to write cursive z

  1. Swing up from the baseline to the midline and make a small rounded hump to the right.
  2. Come back down to the baseline.
  3. Carry the stroke straight on below the baseline and loop to the left.
  4. Come back up through the baseline and exit to the right into the next letter.

The capital Z

Capital Z is the same movement at full height, opening at the top line, and it finishes in the same descender loop.

Where it goes wrong

The tail is the whole letter. A z that stops at the baseline reads as an n — which is the single most common way a cursive word becomes unreadable.

Print the z practice sheet

Printable cursive z practice sheet — first page
Printable z worksheet, US Letter Printable z worksheet, A4

What is on the sheet

  1. Lowercase z
    zzz
    Write three letters z, exactly as in the model. Trace the pale row first, then write the empty rows on your own.
  2. Capital Z
    Z Z Z
    Write the capital Z three times, with a space between them. Capitals fill the full height from the baseline to the top line.
  3. Words: zigzag and puzzle
    zigzag puzzle
    Write both words as in the model, with a clear space between them. Keep every z the same size and the same slant.
  4. Word: buzz
    buzz
    Write the word in one movement where you can, then go back for any dots and crossbars.

Print at 100% on US Letter — not “fit to page”. The ruling is classroom size, and scaling the page down makes every letter the wrong size; the 10 cm scale at the foot of the sheet is there to check against. Every block gives you a model row in full ink, a pale row to trace over and empty ruled rows of your own.

All twenty-six on one page: the cursive alphabet chart.

The other letters

Cursive F Cursive S Cursive G Cursive J Cursive T Cursive B Cursive R Cursive K Cursive Q Cursive I Cursive L Cursive D Cursive A Cursive H Cursive E Cursive N Cursive M Cursive P Cursive V Cursive C Cursive X Cursive W Cursive Y Cursive O Cursive U

Check your z against the model

Write the sheet by hand, photograph it, and our AI scores letter formation, spacing and slant against the same model you traced.

Check your handwriting free

Tricky Letters: r, s, j, p, y and z

In the course, z is taught with the letters that share its movement — that is where to go once the shape itself is no longer the problem.

Tricky Letters: r, s, j, p, y and z The full cursive course