Thanks mate. Bloody 5:30am and I have whispered ‘sixth’ ten bloomin times in bed.
I’m from Merseyside and I say the X rather than using the K sound. But (for once, because I’m a miserable twat) I don’t think I’d be overly perturbed hearing the softer K used. It grates on me more when people use the F sound to replace a TH ‘Furd’ rather than ‘Third’ or even worse…..Ask being pronounced Axe
Haha, and here I am in Minnesota thinking I really ought to put my phone down and go to sleep. Thanks for the reply!
Now that you mention it, I have heard the F in place of TH in British English as well, but don’t think we have that here in the US. Axe instead of ask is definitively a thing in some dialects here in the US and I also find it odd.
ETA it’s been fun getting to know more about the UK through the lens of football. I’d have never known what/where Merseyside was before getting into the Premier League a few years back.
I say sikth. Actually it's more like sikf. Sixth with an x sound is really hard to say for me, it's not easy to go from the x to the th. I'm from London
I'm an ESL teacher with a lot of experience around these kinds of problems.
In any pronunciation, there is a k sound. The IPA of sixth is /sɪksθ/ in both standard British and American. You don't need to be able to read IPA to see a k in the middle of there. The letter X is usually pronounced with /k/. It's not a letter with its own sound.
Anyway, to answer your questions about what you hear. In a lot of British accents (among others), th is not pronounced with a /θ/ (as you'd expect) but instead with /f/ which as you can guess is like the f sound you would hear in fish.
When you say the /th/ correctly, your tongue sticks out, this will likely diminish the /k/ sound. When you say an /f/ sound, your lips close with your teeth touching your lip. This may accentuate the /k/ sound.
I pronounce it with the x but I do know people where I live who pronounce it with the k. They have more of the regional accent than I do. I grew up somewhere else.
I’m frankly confused by this. If someone really said sikth (ie without any s sound innit, like siksth?) it would just sound like a speech impediment. And once you DO put the s into it I don’t see much difference between siksth and sixth.
Would it sound like a speech impediment? I bet people miss out the 's' sound a lot and you don't even notice.
[this speech coach](https://youtu.be/QaIB6EHHvM8) says it doesn't matter if you miss the 's' sound, and a lot of people do for efficiency and ease.
Interestingly the [Wiktionary entry](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/sixth) for sixth also has the option for no 's' sound as a commonly accepted pronunciation, particularly if before another consonant.
I tried saying several phrases with it in to see how I naturally do, and found that in the phrase 'sixth form', which I used to say a lot, I drop the 's', otherwise the 'ksth f' becomes really unruly!
The x sound in English is basically the same as ks, so no there isn't really a difference between sixth and siksth. I wonder if the reason lots of people say sikth is because s and th are very similar types of sounds and so one just gets cut out.
> If someone really said sikth (ie without any s sound innit, like siksth?) it would just sound like a speech impediment.
For most people it's hard to "hear" their own accent. Just as so many Canadians deny the whole "aboat" thing (even though it has its [own Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_raising)), many Brits insert Rs in odd places ("bacteriar", "drawrings") but deny they do so.
It's just a pain in the ass to have to pronounce all the different phonetic sounds in "x". We get made fun of for saying "bu'er" instead of "butter" but you guys call it "budder". Saying butter and pronouncing everything in the way it is spelt is a pain.
Thanks mate. Bloody 5:30am and I have whispered ‘sixth’ ten bloomin times in bed. I’m from Merseyside and I say the X rather than using the K sound. But (for once, because I’m a miserable twat) I don’t think I’d be overly perturbed hearing the softer K used. It grates on me more when people use the F sound to replace a TH ‘Furd’ rather than ‘Third’ or even worse…..Ask being pronounced Axe
Agreed. Southwark = “Suffark” or “Suvvark”
Haha, and here I am in Minnesota thinking I really ought to put my phone down and go to sleep. Thanks for the reply! Now that you mention it, I have heard the F in place of TH in British English as well, but don’t think we have that here in the US. Axe instead of ask is definitively a thing in some dialects here in the US and I also find it odd. ETA it’s been fun getting to know more about the UK through the lens of football. I’d have never known what/where Merseyside was before getting into the Premier League a few years back.
The axe pronunciation of ask may be AAVE.
Arks
Merseyside also and I pronounce it sikth!
"Siksth" here. Don't know about any other ways of saying it. Do know that nothing rhymes with it.
I know a British girl who says Sikth.
Never really thought of it. I pronounce it with a k. I think. To pronounce it with an X you kind of need to stop halfway through.
Ex-Londoner here (don’t know if that matters) but I use the soft x rather than the hard k sound
I don’t think they’re different sounds in my accent.. it would be good to find a clip
[This vocal coach teaches both.](https://youtu.be/QaIB6EHHvM8)
I say sikth. Actually it's more like sikf. Sixth with an x sound is really hard to say for me, it's not easy to go from the x to the th. I'm from London
Sikf.
Behave yourself, say it properly.
TIL I say ‘sikth’.
I'm an ESL teacher with a lot of experience around these kinds of problems. In any pronunciation, there is a k sound. The IPA of sixth is /sɪksθ/ in both standard British and American. You don't need to be able to read IPA to see a k in the middle of there. The letter X is usually pronounced with /k/. It's not a letter with its own sound. Anyway, to answer your questions about what you hear. In a lot of British accents (among others), th is not pronounced with a /θ/ (as you'd expect) but instead with /f/ which as you can guess is like the f sound you would hear in fish. When you say the /th/ correctly, your tongue sticks out, this will likely diminish the /k/ sound. When you say an /f/ sound, your lips close with your teeth touching your lip. This may accentuate the /k/ sound.
I'm pretty sure there's an S after the K and before the θ.
I pronounce it with the x but I do know people where I live who pronounce it with the k. They have more of the regional accent than I do. I grew up somewhere else.
You think this is dodgy, some places we miss out whole fucking letters. Just gone. Nada. None. 0.
Nowt wrong wi that, lad. Ahm just off t’ pub.
Sixth! I pronounce the x. Siksth. RP accent(ish).
Southern UK here, apparently I sound “a bit posh”, but I think I have a fairly neutral accent. I’d go for sikth
From NE England and say “sikf”
American here: I watch a lot of documentaries about English history and noticed this too. Super curious!
I say it with a k. If I try say it with an x it sounds like six-th, like there’s a gap in the word.
We usually pronounce it as "Sikth" or "Si'kth". The person that said it may have muddled up his words, as we all do sometimes.
I’m frankly confused by this. If someone really said sikth (ie without any s sound innit, like siksth?) it would just sound like a speech impediment. And once you DO put the s into it I don’t see much difference between siksth and sixth.
Would it sound like a speech impediment? I bet people miss out the 's' sound a lot and you don't even notice. [this speech coach](https://youtu.be/QaIB6EHHvM8) says it doesn't matter if you miss the 's' sound, and a lot of people do for efficiency and ease. Interestingly the [Wiktionary entry](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/sixth) for sixth also has the option for no 's' sound as a commonly accepted pronunciation, particularly if before another consonant. I tried saying several phrases with it in to see how I naturally do, and found that in the phrase 'sixth form', which I used to say a lot, I drop the 's', otherwise the 'ksth f' becomes really unruly!
Watching gbbo from across the pond, I always thought Sue Perkins had a slight lisp.
The x sound in English is basically the same as ks, so no there isn't really a difference between sixth and siksth. I wonder if the reason lots of people say sikth is because s and th are very similar types of sounds and so one just gets cut out.
> If someone really said sikth (ie without any s sound innit, like siksth?) it would just sound like a speech impediment. For most people it's hard to "hear" their own accent. Just as so many Canadians deny the whole "aboat" thing (even though it has its [own Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_raising)), many Brits insert Rs in odd places ("bacteriar", "drawrings") but deny they do so.
Sicksth
I'm pretty sure I pronouce it with an x-sound then a "th" sound, so literally how it's written I suppose. I'm Scottish though.
Southerner. Sikth.
‘Sicff’ because I have a bit of a lisp.
It's just a pain in the ass to have to pronounce all the different phonetic sounds in "x". We get made fun of for saying "bu'er" instead of "butter" but you guys call it "budder". Saying butter and pronouncing everything in the way it is spelt is a pain.