“Third, fourth, fifth, sikth, seventh...”

[TalkinAboutManetManet]

I’m a native English speaker, but not from the UK. I listen to a lot of British podcasts and radio programme, and the pronunciation of “sixth” without the “x” sound seems to be very common.

To me, it sounds very grating as I can hear it immediately. Like the wag some people say “axe” for “ask”.

Can anyone shed any light as to why it’s commonplace in the UK? Is it taught there? Is it considered correct?

If you say “sikth” and then “sixth”, can you hear the difference?

SW England. Pretty rp. Get accused of being 'posh'

I cannot say six-th. I can say six.... Th.

It sounds ridiculous, like I'm drunk and pretending not to be or I've lost control of my tongue.

I'm pretty RP too. Southern educated and went to grammar and have a bundle of degrees from various Russell group universities and have always said 'sikth'.

Same here. I thought only really posh people said 'six-th'

I'm saying both out loud and now don't have a bloody clue which one I do say. I think I do say sixth and fifth but they're both very clunky words.

I'm from the North East and have always said six th. I think the other way sounds posh, mainly because I hear bbc newsreaders doing it. It annoys me too.

People seem to also have developed an aversion to the 'st' sound. So 'stupid students' is more often than not 'shtupid shtudents'. Why? The St sound is not difficult!

You have your teeth slightly open to make the x sound. Then your tongue fills the gap to make a th. Seems natural to me.

Oooh this is my biggest peeve! I have been known to shout "It's SIXTH! NOT SIKTH!" at the TV on a regular basis. I hate it when people say sikth. Its really not that difficult.

Dare I mention fith for fifth?

Runs and hides...

I’m Irish and working class, and it certainly isn’t poshness making me say ‘sixth’.

I would say shtupid shtudents too.

And I agree that sixth sounds like syoot, something I just wouldn't say

But why?, there's no h

There's a range of different accents. It's a simple as that.

I like hearing different accents.

I have to say arks doesn't bother me at all. Sikth does though. I don't know why.

DramaAlpaca
I'm from the north west, went to grammar school & a Russell group university, have a middle class accent that isn't RP & manage to say sixth perfectly easily. It's got nothing to do with education.

That is actually the opinion I was trying to share in my post by emphasising my extremely extended educational credentials. 😁

I think I insert a 't' into them, and so do quite a few, though i don't have a standard English accent.

Six-t-th (siks-t--th)
Fif-t-th

It's part of saying the 'th' sound, but a lot of people don't believe they actually articulate part of the 't' on its own first, but they do if you listen really closely - it's almost the pause between the 'f' (or 'x') and the 'th'

Does anyone else find it easier to say sixth if you are not saying it after fifth? Saying fifth makes me want to say sickth

Identical to spike, RP/west country, but have lived all over and I've never even noticed I say it incorrectly and fith too! I also can't say "bald", like most of my home city. It comes out as "bowled" unless I say it really deliberately and slowly and I sound a bit like a sheep.

Si/ks/th. Fi/f/th.
Hmm. I'm Kentish and I find the transition 's-th' and 'f-th' very hard to pronounce with a straight face. I'm sitting here in the bath going 's-th, s-th' and 'f-th, f-th' feeling quite silly that these particular consonant links are actually a bit beyond me.

I say sicth and fith.

What the hell is RP?!

I definitely say sixth.

It also drives me a bit wild when people say "corter" instead of "kwarter" when saying quarter. It is corter to five. No no no.

I just realised I add in a t to fifth too 'fiftht'

My poor children are learning bad English from me with no one to correct them!

'RP' stands for 'received pronunciation' (basically 'standard' English with a southern/Home Counties type accent).

I’m still thinking about this

The thing is, when you blend x-th it sounds (to me) the same as k-th. Only when I insert a pause can I emphasise the “x” sound. Speed it up and it becomes k-th.

But I’m no expert on enunciation. Can’t even roll my r’s.

a linguist to postgraduate level and a pedant

You can't be both

I cannot really tell the different between "sixth" and "sikth", or I can but only very minimally if I was listening for it.

I've Just tried to make a "X" sound and follow it with "th" and it tongue ties me, so even if I tried I don't think I could say it as "sixth".