This is one of those questions I've been putting off for years. I haven't figured out who to ask. I think I have an accent when I speak German. There are certain consonants I may not be pronouncing hard enough, and certain vowels I may not be aspirating correctly.
I have a slight hesitation whenever I say the number 6. I'm not confident I am pronouncing it correctly. For example, I was at a gas station and asked which pump I used, so I said "sechs" in a somewhat unsure way. I detected a slight double-take and smirk from the cashier, but not sure if it was because of my pronounciation or my awkward wilt.
Is there a difference in the pronounciations of "sechs" and "sex" that native german speakers can distinguish? I don't know if I am deaf to it, or if I am being overly self-conscious.
Thats what dictionarys tell you. In the south of the German speaking area most people do not differentiate between voiced and invoiced s. Thus the two words are pronounced identically.
That's what you often here in Switzerland, because its the way 6 is said in the allemanic dialect. In Standard German the only difference is whether the s is voiced or unvoiced, which is, as told above, not done by German speakers from the south.
In High German, the pronounciation for the number 6 is "sex", exactly as in sex.
In Swiss German however, the pronounciation is "sächs", with a soft ch. If you pronounce it sex and your Swiss German is really good otherwise, it is possible that it could be taken as an intended ambiguity/joke.
BTW I found that here in Switzerland most gas station cashiers monitor the outside very closely and usually already know your pump number when you get in.
Agree, but south Germans aside (who are largely monosyllabic at the best of times) there is a marked difference in pronunciation, for the last hour or so I have been saying Sex and Sechs over and over again and now I am confused, wanting to get laid and have evening meal at the same time.