How do you pronounce .gif?

[Snarky]

Yeah, but I was annoyed by how you - in multiple statements - implied that the spelling indicates a hard G, when it does no such thing. There's nothing in the spelling of "gif" that specifies whether the initial letter should be pronounced as in "gin" or as in "git."

[Babar]

Okay, here's another one then.
I've often heard people pronounce GUI as 'gooey', like a sticky oozey substance.
I prefer to just say the letters: gee-you-eye
(or jee-you-eye, as the case may be)

Yesterday, when I was pondering responding to this topic, I was going to use this example as well. I've always said the letters out aloud (and also always said pee-en-gee"), because gooey just seemed weird.
When I first saw the topic title, I said "You pronounce it jif, obviously!", but then after reading gif jif gif jif and saying it to myself, I'm confused as to how I'd actually pronounce it (I may have only ever said it aloud once). I'd probably stick with "jif"- I don't usually think of "graphical interchange format" when I say "gif", and as people have mentioned before, pronunciation of acronyms really doesn't depend at all on how the original word used the letter.

I realised that there are a lot of hard g soft g words that I'm not entirely sure about. They're all slipping my mind now, though . As a kid, I used to read "Reggie" (from Archie comics) as "Regi" as opposed to "Reji", but I guess since it is a shortened form of Reginald, it'd probably have the soft g.

It is interesting how people might read these words regularly that they never need to say out aloud, and how they might never realise they're pronouncing them differently. A friend of mine, who is very well read, but doesn't speak english as a first language surprised me a while back with "ren-dez-vus" (rendezvous) and "jen-er" (genre).

[Tabata]

I never thought about the possibitlity to use a soft-g for gif 

And if there is a format called jif it might become confusing if you do so - hmmmm - I think I'll hold on to use the hard-g for gif.

... btw. you don't use the soft-g when talking about the gip-thread, do you? 

[Ryan Timothy B]

Definitely hard-G. Don't be like Christopher Lloyd and his bumbling mistake of 1.21 jigawatts (also as a side note, he also pronounces it as: One point twenty-one, instead of One point two, one. Any scientist should know the standard way of saying it - unless different countries group the decimals like that).

[Babar]

Despite what gigabytes and gigahertz may have conditioned you to believe, "jigawatts" is a completely valid pronunciation.

And I've never said (in my mind or out aloud) "gip-thread" . If I had to, I'd say X game's thread or games-in-production thread.

[m0ds]

The g is short for graphics and graphics does not have a silent G. So how does one even get to the point of using a J? Presumably via acid or LSD, which most animated GIFs seem to be induced by themselves



^ classic GIF of Snarky clapping

[selmiak]

I give in, the gift of a GIF pronounced jif gives me grief.

[Anian]

In Croatia it's mostly said like it's written, so GIF is "gift" without the "t" and we also usually read "jpeg" as y+peg and I know that one is clearly wrong, but on the .gif thing it's weird. We do it because it's kind of easier to understand when you're not talking in English. In general, the English language has some overcomplicated (well every language has it quirks) rules that just make the language so weird for beginners or non-frequent users, one of those rules is the "silent g" where it basically says you're supposed to say G very similarly to J, which is redundant to say the least.

[Retro Wolf]

The English language has been influenced by so many different cultures, we've been invaded or settled by Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Normans, Welsh, Scots, Dutch...
It's no wonder the English language is difficult!

[Armageddon]

The g is short for graphics and graphics does not have a silent G. So how does one even get to the point of using a J? Presumably via acid or LSD, which most animated GIFs seem to be induced by themselves



^ classic GIF of Snarky clapping

I think it's time we all pull out our favourite gifs in celebration of coming to the conclusion that it has, and always will be, pronounced gif.

[Tabata]

  YEAH - celebrating the gif's!

     I am all in  -  YEEEE-HA!

[Babar]

I just read something I thought was funny, and sorta relevant considering "g stands for graphics, not jraphics" line of thought.

It isn't "gay-peg", it sounds more like "j-fag", because the P there stands for "Photographic" .

[Adam H]

To reiterate many excellent arguments:

I agree with so many of you that it's pronounced "Gif", with a "G" sound, just like Gin, Gypsy, Gipped, Giraffe, Geoffrey, Giselle, and Genuine. Saying it's pronounced "jif" not "gif" is an embarrassment to this argument. Stand strong, true believers! Type it boldly: "It's pronounced GIF"! If you are misinterpreted, it's the reader's fault for not knowing phonetics.

The list of acronyms that you pronounce phonetically is larger than the list of acronyms that you pronounce by stringing together the each individual sounds from the words the acronym is derived from (i.e. no one is arguing to pronounce jpeg like JEG because the p is silent - kudos Babar). 

Lastly, I'm pretty sure if you invent a word you can be the tiebreaker in a controversy like this.

[Crimson Wizard]

I agree with so many of you that it's pronounced "Gif", with a "G" sound, just like Gin, Gypsy, Gipped, Giraffe, Geoffrey, Giselle, and Genuine. Saying it's pronounced "jif" not "gif" is an embarrassment to this argument.

..........my brain has just exploded.

[Babar]

Hahah...thanks, I guess. But there isn't really any tie-breaker here. People who pronounce it with a soft g will continue doing so, people who pronounce it with a hard g will also continue doing so, and even the creator of the word can't tell them otherwise, and at this point, both ways are "correct". I wasn't so much arguing for "my side" as I was addressing a specific point (about pronouncing acronyms based off the phonetics of their original words).

I still pronounce Adobe (the company) as "a-doab", even though it is an american company that pronounces it "a-doe-bee", and telling me I'm wrong isn't going to help.

So yeah, as Adam says, pronounce it GIF, and let the reader decide what you mean by that .

[Khris]

Random cat:


Faith:

[Atelier]

I pronounce it G.I.F.

[AGA]

The English language has been influenced by so many different cultures, we've been invaded or settled by Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Normans, Welsh, Scots, Dutch...
It's no wonder the English language is difficult!

Why do you differentiate Celts from Welsh and Scots?

Also, it's a hard g.  Anyone who disagrees with me will be banned!

[Crimson Wizard]

It interesting that there are both AGA and AJA forum members around here.

[Stupot]

... btw. you don't use the soft-g when talking about the gip-thread, do you? 

I call it the 'Jee-eye-pee' thread.

In another instance of reading something often but not hearing it much and therefore getting the pronunciation wrong, up until very recently I would always read the word 'segue' as 'seeg'.  On the few occasions when I heard someone say the word 'segue' I would always imagine it to be written as 'segway'.  I knew what it meant, but for some reason I never made the connection that the written 'segue' and the spoken 'segway' were actually the same thing.

It interesting that there are both AGA and AJA forum members around here.

Haha, true.  I pronounce both of those just by saying the letters 'ay-jee-ay' and 'ay-jay-ay'.  Does anyone actually say them as words?