Is GIF pronounced "gif" or "jif"?

14 Comments

  • Brian Ezzell - 5 years ago

    The reason it's pronounced 'JIF' and 3 examples of other G words with a soft G.

    Most important, Steve Wilhite invented the GIF format and says it's pronounced 'JIF'. He's GIF's daddy. He say's it's pronounced 'JIF'. End of story.

    1 - Gin - a distilled alcoholic drink that derives its predominant flavor from juniper berries
    2 - Gem - a precious or semiprecious stone, especially when cut and polished or engraved
    3 - Gym - a covered location for gymnastics, athletics and gymnastic services

    It's 'JIF'. Pronounce it correctly.

  • Josh - 6 years ago

    Think of it this way. For people who argue for "jif", why do you have to spell it with a "j" in order to show how it's pronounced? If it's pronounced like "jif" then it should be spelled with a "J", or if it's pronounced "jif" why can't you just spell it "gif" but everyone would pronounce it "jif"?

  • Piggery Axe - 6 years ago

    Consider word origin and pronunciation rules. For those of you citing "gift" as the way to pronounce "gif" just dropping the last letter, consider that GIF is a purely English word originating after the English language was created and developed. Gift was stemmed from Germanic words "gieven" "gipt" and other miscellaneous origins of those words. Gin is also a suitable argument. Just change the "n" to an "f." This makes it pronounced with a soft "g." Gin, stemming from an earlier Dutch word for the game of Genever, is an English abbreviation, much like GIF is an abbreviation of the Graphical User Interface. So more accurately than basing GIF off of "gift," we should base it off of a similar case of abbreviation, "gin." Now consider pronunciation rules. In earlier Germanic language, "g" rarely uses the soft sound, and in "gieven" and "gipt" or in "geben," to give, the hard "g" sound is used. So if the word GIF was a Germanic word, it would most likely be a harder "g" sound, but rather, GIF is an English word, as it was created recently. In English, pronunciation rules indicate that a "g" placed before the vowel "i" is to be pronounced as its soft form unless it is a word originating from Germanic words, which GIF is not. So GIF, most correctly and accurately, is to be pronounced with a soft "g" sound unless you desire to just be totally and completely incorrect. And for those of you arguing the hard "g" sound in the word "graphic," consider the acronym SCUBA, which under that rule would use a long "u," as in "cut," and a short "a," as in cat. Scuba. Also citing JPEG, Joint Photographic Experts Group, would use a soft "p" sound, so that rule would just be wrong unless you wish to go into every word of abbreviation and change it.

  • Donald Trump - 6 years ago

    It is gif with a G

  • seahair - 6 years ago

    put it this way. how do you pronounce "gift"?
    with a hard g.
    so how would you pronounce it if you just dropped the last letter?
    with a hard "g". it's just correct that way.

  • Kye - 7 years ago

    It is a soft "G", pronounced "jif", even the creator of the GIF say in the NY times how annoyed he is at the debate over the pronunciation of GIF.

  • Jesse - 8 years ago

    Question is hilarious.
    If person pronounces with soft g, voter would read: is jif pronounced jif or jif?
    Essentially both answers would be correct for these voters (potentially skewing results).
    If person pronounces with hard g, voter would read is gif pronounced gif or

  • Mike - 8 years ago

    Gif is right and will eventually be the standard as less and less people say jif. It will change as the language evolves.

  • Donald - 8 years ago

    So by your logic .jpg should be pronounced "jfeg" instead of "jpeg" since it stand for "Joint Photographic Experts Group"

    This argument has been said a million times, and saying it over and over again does not make it valid. I'm sorry you're wrong and don't like it, and can't come up with a valid argument, but it's time to let it go.

    It is pronounced how it is pronounced, not how it is spelled; Just like everything else in the English language. Pronouncing it any other way just on principal makes you sound like you don't know what you're talking about and shouldn't be taken seriously. Besides, if you want to be the English pronunciation police start with "Colonel", "Island" or something more worth while.

  • Gud - 9 years ago

    Gif stands for Graphics Interchange Format, it is a hard G.

  • Bob Jones - 9 years ago

    All of you who say gif with the hard g are officially wrong.

    Look here
    http://mashable.com/2013/05/21/jif-not-gifs-pronunciation-steve-wilhite/

    “The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story,” says Steve Wilhite, the engineering lead on the team that adapted the GIF file format.

    If anyone wants to debate, send me a furious messageat mashelp.weebly.com with a way to reply back.

  • Impromptu - 10 years ago

    I worked for several ISPs back in the nineties and it was always "gif" as in "gift"

  • Factual - 11 years ago

    It's "jif" and always has been.

  • Alan - 12 years ago

    I'm sticking with Gif. I don't wanna be seen as a flip-flopper. Especially after I've tried to correct so many people who said Jif.

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