5 ms·

How to Cockney speakers say words like "fifth" or "sixth" though? I've always wondered. Can't just be "fif", can it?

• bombcar 5y ago
  Fif and Sixf are heard enough here in America; enough that both fif and fifth sound fine to me.
• secondcoming 5y ago
  The BBC pronounces 'sixth' as though it was spelled 'sikth'
  • denton-scratch 5y ago
    Native english speaker here. Hardly anyone enunciates the 'x' in a word like 'sixth'. I say 'sikth' (and I fancy myself a fairly eloquent speaker). It's got too many consonant sounds; the human tongue just isn't agile enough for a word like that. You might get it properly-enunciated by a university don, or certain kinds of very pernickety radio presenters.
    • secondcoming 5y ago
      Me too. I think that difficulty is restricted to UK and then maybe only England. I know pretty much everyone in Ireland pronounces the 'x', and I don't recall any Scottish people doing it the BBC way. I've no idea about the US, Aus, etc. YMMV
  • euroderf 5y ago
    FWIW, the sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick.