You know those .gif files. How do you pronounce “gif”?
Gotta be. “Jiff” is stupid.
Choosy mothers choose correct pronunciation.
it’s actually Jif but hearing it like that makes me cringe, ick. That’s why I’m in this column.
I’ve never been one to accept that the creator of such things should dictate how it is pronounced, especially since it is an acronym and not a proper word.
And anyway, I’d really rather it be pronounced “Ping.” :)
100% certain about this. I feel it in the core of my soul.
Gotta Get Gif … Jif makes me squirm
‘jif’ is a sound best left for peanut butter.
jiff makes feel icky
I don’t know why this one has always bugged me but it makes my teeth hurt to hear people say jif. Every time I hear it, I want to beat the mispronouncer with a non-color safe pixel.
G = “GUH” for the “G” in graphic of “Graphics Interchange Format”. Nobody says “Jraphic”. I don’t care that the .gif creator mispronounced his own acronym.
Besides, JIF is peanut butter and I don’t want peanut butter on my computer screen. I wonder if Compuserve is going to go after the creators of JIF (http://www.jif.com) for using GIFs on their official JIF website.
I didn’t even know anybody pronounced it jif.
Fuck the inventors. It comes from Graphics, not Jraphics. Period. The end. Now shut up.
definitely
This ain’t peanut butter.
So gif
it is so called a gif.
Perhaps it’s “jif” according to the inventors of the format, but you know what? Even they could be wrong. GIF stands for Graphic Interchange Format, and you don’t say “Jraphic,” do you? No, you don’t.
And computers are the ones that have to create and use GIF files, shouldn’t they be the ones who are allowed to choose?
Graphics! With a G!
It’s an acronym, dammit. Graphics Interchange Format.
You don’t say Jraphics. You say Graphics.
These Jif types are just ponces trying to sound special for pronouncing it different.
No-brainer!
Used to say ‘jif,’ but someone told me I was saying it wrong.
How I’ve always pronounced it.
What else?
FFS how could it be Jif. Thats just fecking crazy!
G is for Graphics
I am the manager of the tech department for a medium sized organisation, and one of my interview questions is: gif or jif. Anyone who says Jif doesnt get hired.
I would rather go PNG (ping) and abandon GIF.
Oh please… They’re Jjjjjrrrreat!
G is G.
I should have used Joojle to look it up, but i’m gonna go ahead and say a G is a G, not a J.
If you just look at it, and don’t hear anyone say it, it says “Gif” like “gift.” If you are that uppety about the correct pronunciation and are offended by people using it so irresponsibly, you should get a gob.
“Jif” is like nails on a chalkboard.
Never heard the other one before.
Jif is atrocious. Absolutely inexcusable.
Duh?!
I started out as a jiffer, but have converted.
The other way is just strange.
isn’t g for ‘graphics’? not ‘j-raphics’?
No doubt.
Hearing it pronounced “jif” makes my ears burn.
G - It was the way I was taught, so it has always sounded correct.
I’m a giffer working in a company of jiffers — oh the agony.
And not only because I’m from Sweden ;)
Isn’t it Graphical Interface Format? I work with someone who says jif and I always want to correct him but I’m too much of a wuss.
I’m usually one to support branding efforts (“choosy developers choose gif”), but the format is solidly in use nowadays, plus the “jif” pronunciation is unsettling, for many of us it seems. It’s weird.
I choose “gif” not just because I hate “jif”, but because the G stands for “graphics”.
While feeding a jaggle of jeese at the park, I saw this jorgeous jirl and I jasped as i jazed upon her beauty. Without thinking I jot up an started walking toward her. My jait was swift. I caught her eye as she jazed back at me. She stopped and I continued until we were face to face in our jaze.
We sat on the bench and we jabbed for hours. Then we went jadding about town in her convertible until we ran out of jas. So, I pushed while she steered to the nearest jarage. The owner, Jary, also had a horse farm and raised jazelles. Strange, I know, but he said we could have one of his horses for the afternoon. The notion made me feel quite jalant as we both mounted the filly and i yelled “jiddy-up!” The horse took off as we held on tight.
The horse slowed, I think we named her Jallop be cause she obviously loved to run. I asked my jirl if she was wanting to eat. She said jood jolly I am ready for some jood comfort food. So we ate at Jastronomie - I must say it was mighty jood - and over our meal I told her I was in a band. “We call ourselves Jang of Tweed.” She jiggled and said that I was funny. I said it was a jift. She jaffawed and did a spit take with her Jalliano cocktail.
I said, “seriously we have a jig tonight at Joombah’s, it’s a jangland themed club. We jarner a lot of fans there.”
So we left the restaurant and headed to Joombah’s. I played my juitar like I have never played before that night. I was jassed while watching her sway as she jazed at at me and the rest of the jang at the jig jot crazy and jalavanted around the club that night.
I could go on….
While “jif” may have been the pronunciation used by the inventor, there is an actual file extension .jif (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jif). And it is not related to the GIF. It is an extension used for JFIF JPEG images. So if both .gif and .jif are pronounced “jif,” how are we supposed to know what file tiype you mean? That’s why I say the “gif” is the proper pronunciation.
You don’t call them gay-pegs do you?
gay-pegs, holy shit, thanks for driving it home for us all. Brilliant.
I think people who pronounce it like “Jiffy” should be shot.
I can’t believe I posted in the hard J column when I am so vehemently opposed to that. Please web overlords pull that vote down!
I am a special ed instructor and I’ve recently started teaching web design in my classes. Even my most retarded students don’t pronounce it “jif.”
Gif with a hard “G” for goodness sakes!!!!!! Drives me insane to work with a bunch of jiffy-heads.
Definitely going to start calling jpegs gay-pegs. Man, that is funny.
Unless your name is Bush, there is only one way to say it
G G G G GUG GUUUHHH-IFFFF - it HAS to be.
Yeah.
Word.
without a doubt.
You just sound like a sissy when you say “jif.”
Gif is the duct tape image format, manly, agressive, no-nonsense. Rugged and uncompromising. It’s either transparent or it isn’t. My way or the highway.
It’s a hard G, you Nancy.
this is the correct way. anyone who disagrees is wrong.
It’s not peanut butter.
Only retards say “jiff” Which part of the G in Graphics do you not understand?
Um…wouldn’t they have spelt it with a J if they wanted it said that way? I know, I know, I bet it’s an acronym for something. What does Gif stand for anyways?
un gif…voyon don! c beaucoup plus tendance!
Finally… Let’s put an end to JIF.
Oh, come on! This is the right way anyway :)
Personally, I prefer .jpgs… that’s Jay Pegs.
GIF - Graphics Interchange Format. But, if you read the third “gif” vote, there’s a lot of history behind “jif.”
Gome is wrong.
Jif sounds dirty >
Fsssh….. I’ll get you that “jif” in a “gif”… stoopid bitch.
Gif is so much better.
Like anybody is still reading these.
The ridiculous “JIF” pronunciation was invented by the CompuServe marketing department. Sorry, I don’t let marketing departments dictate the way I say things, especially when those things are blatantly wrong. If the way we talk were up to marketing departments, we couldn’t say “Legos” when we mean more than one Lego(R) brand building blocks. F that.
Do we want precision and accuracy, or marketing?
People linking to the “final” or “official” explanation are morons. The world has rejected your marketing fluff. It is GIF, pronounced like it is spelled, with a hard G just like in Graphics.
Also, Jif Peanut Butter sucks. I don’t think it even has peanuts in it. It’s basically vegetable oil and peanut flavoring.
German pronounciation is gif and it makes perfect sense in english, too.
I was shocked the first time I heard “Jif.” No like. HATE!
Gif!!! Aurggg! I hate when people pronounce it like Jiffy. It makes them sound uneducated about computers.
It’s a standard where I work, and if anyone says it “Jif” they get fired and court marshalled. Harsh, but saying “Jif” deserves worse.
kgiff.
Whenever someone says “Jif” they should be told about the JPEG JFIF format, which is pronounced “j-peg jif.”
GIF is prounced like “Gift” you fools.
“Jif” makes the baby Jesus cry.
isn’t it spelled with a ‘G’?
Obviously Gif like GIFT.
if you wanted a better example for soft G than “Jiffy” (which is spelled with a J, DUH) you should say “Gism”.
Jiff sounds moronic.
most of all, in my native language german, noone ever pronounces it ‘jif’ (that sound doesn’t exist in original german) .. so in ‘our’ usage, it’s only confusing if i’ld say jif.
Gif is the acronym for “Graphics Interchange Format”, not “Jraphics Interchange Format”.
Gif period you strange people you
like gift
GIF(T). says it all.
Sry, “jif” sounds stupid.
גיף. זה ברור
not peanut butter.
En français, Gif dit à la Gift sonne plus naturel.
My native language being french, I took the habit of using the “Gift” style pronunciation. Sounds more natural to me!
Graphics Interchange Format - duh!
Gesus Christ, it is GIF!!! The other way of saying may or may not be “officially” correct, but it is still pronounced Giff with a hard “G”, end of.
Gift all the way, Jif? sounds like a cartoon character.
Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif! Gif!
guh-iff
Jif sounds dumb. No other reason.
It’s this way
“Graphics Interchange Format - duh!”
Who cares if the inverters of the thing said it should be pronounced “JIG” - that just emphasizes the fact they were nerds and not English majors.
JIF is for pretensious people who like to think that URL (U.R.L.) is better than URL (EARL). Of course these same people probably don’t know the difference between an acronym and an initialism.
why would removing the “t” from “gift” make it start with a j sound? it ain’t jif.
Anyone who says it like Jiffy is a moron.
129 GIF fans can’t be wrong ….. can they?
Apparently, 2 out of 3 people choose GIF!
Suck it, jiffers!
Given, English follows French and other romance languages of switching the pronunciation of c’s and g’s before vowels, a process that began in Vulgar Latin. However, filenames do not apply to these rules.
JIF IS FOR CLEANING FLOORS
GRAPHIC INTERCHANGE FORMAT
NOT
JRAPHIC INTERCHANGE FORMAT
Solved.
I ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i do it this way….
!!
“G” before “I” is hard. More than likely the “inventor” was reading his own acronym in his head as “Gee Eye Eff” and then truncated it to Geef. Just like Jeep came from G.P. (General Purpose).
This whole debate exists because of a mental slip. Hard G gif will prevail because that is how it is naturally read in english and most western languages.
Besides, to hell with gif. Use PNGs.
It ain’t peanut butter.
Over here (Germany), even gen or giraffe comes with a hard G.
Graphic - duh!
My manifesto: Let’s ban the soft G. Giraffes will become jiraffes. Golf will remain golf. Also, lets retire the C. Cyan will be syan, and crap will be krap. One more thing: no more need for a U after a Q. Any supporters out there?
One problem: The letter G is pronounced “Gee”. We’ll have to fix that to “Go”
I’ve been wondering how to pronounce the name of that movie I made. Thanks everyone!
gif me a break.
G, as in G! It starts with a G!!! “George” is just wrong.
Graphics Interchange Format
Right?
So since the G in Graphics is hard, like in Gift, I say it that way and I vote that way.
Neither G. I. F. (Gee Eye Eff) just like P. D. F. (Pee Dee Eff) It’s an acronym
fucksake it’s gif not peanut butter
I read somewhere that it can be pronounced either way, but that’s just crazy talk! GIF!
mmkey
Because that’s how it’s pronounced in German.
Anyone who says gigabyte like ‘jigabyte’ is officially gay, or has been watching back to the future too much.
Look at all that white space over there. It’s GIF. Popular usage determines how it’s pronounced, just like with any other word.
has to be… or the terrorists have already won.
The CompuServe/Graphics Interchange Format people answered this question during an NPR radio interview in 1996 and they said “GUH” like “gift”.
So there.
It’s gotta be “Gift” - but then again, I walk around saying Adob…instead of Adobeeeee.
Hard G as in “Graphic Interchange Format”
Again, it doesn’t matter what the format’s author thinks. Usage demands gif as in gift.
The users of language get to determine definition, pronunciation, and usage, witness the appearance of “bling” in Webster’s dictionary.
It’s GIF, with a “G”. The proletariate has spoken!!!
Gif is a file. Jif is a peanut butter.
Over here in the UK Jif used to be a cleaning fluid (although that’s now ‘Cif’) and it’s still a lemon-juice brand. Plus, we don’t automatically learn any Spanish so G is almost exclusively pronounced with a hard ‘guh’ sound.
I propose that since Compuserve named the Graphic Interchange Format based on the phrase (shouldn’t “phrase” start with an “F”? but I digress…) “Choosy developers choose Gif.”, which was coined by the marketers of JIF peanut butter, they should be sued for trademark infringement and the penalty could be a public apology for the lack of judgement in naming (and all that business about charging people for using the format awhile back). This would result in the “official” renaming to GIF with a hard “G”. They would then eliminate the format and endorse PNG.
eo: I would be happy to say MoDEEM from now on but I won’t have to since I use a NIC card - hmmmm… NIC sounds just like it’s written…
Jiff sounds so stupid
Of course.
jiff is for geeks. the rest of the world pronounces the g.
i say it chalks up to dialect. kinda like tomayto/tomahto or soda/pop.
when you deal with non-techies all day, you need to be as unambiguous as possible. If I said “JIF” I’d start seeing things like “imagename.jif” in emails. Yuk.
gif sounds welcoming. jif sounds hard. i don’t like saying jif. assheads.
No question.
Jif is a flippin’ peanut-butter.
Psh.
Seriously.
Choosy moms choose GIF!
like ‘gift’ because ‘jpeg’ is like ‘jiffy’ (because ‘gay-peg’ would be a silly name for a file format).
GIF… as in ‘Graphic’… as in you’d have to be a fool to pronounce it with a J….
Sorry all you folks over there on the right!
Even though folowing the Latin rules would make it like “jiffy,” like “gift” just sounds better.
But it really doesn’t bother me either way.
I wasn’t aware than anyone said “gif” like “jiffy”.
jif is just wrong
I’ve always pronounced it this way, and even though it may be wrong according to the creators of the format, the other pronunciation always hits my ear wrong.
It seems pretty overwhelming.
When you use “Jif” it confuses people who are unfamiliar with web technologies and causes more problems. The same is true with “PNG.”
Jif may be the “correct” way to pronounce it, but it isn’t the “Right” way to.
Guns don’t kill people, GIFs do.
jif is for jerks
“jif” annoys me almost as much pronouncing PNG as “ping”.
If .GIF is pronounced “Jif” does that mean .JPG is pronounced “Gpeg”? The mind boggles … and who cares if the inventors say “Jif”, we can’t help then if they got it wrong.
has to be hard G, otherwise it could be confused with JFIF.
Hard “G” seem right to me.
yep, like gift. what more do you need?
Just like Giffin.
G I F Baby
Jo for it
Okay, the only word in the English language that starts with G - I - F is the word “gift.” I’m just saying.
It’s never even been a question inside my brain… now it is!
It’s a Graphics Interchange Format, not a Giraffe Interchange Format. Thus, GIF as in Graphics, not GIF as in Giraffe. Although I do confess curiosity about how a Giraffe Interchange Format would work.
In design school, we got used to saying “Jeff” for GIF and “Peggy” for JPEG.
Similarly, back when I worked at Taco Time, we used to say “Bob” for “crisp bean burrito” and “Marty” for “crisp meat burrito”. Two Bobs and a Marty and a Mr. Pibb. Delicious.
Oh — when I’m not anthropomorphizing image formats, I side with the hard-G camp.
Hard “g” because the root word of the acronym… “Graphics”… has a hard “g”… so “Gif” like “Gift”
why would you make a g sound like a j?
Jif is peanut butter, duh.
“lots of animated GIFS! {pronounces it /gifs/; stops typing} or… GIFs… {pronounces it /jifs/} or however you say it. I don’t know. I heard a couple of nerds arguing about it one time. But you want as many of those as possible.”
It’s just… right. Jif is cleaning product (kind of like Ajax).
I definitely say the hard G, but if the question is being asked, then my bet is that for some strange reason “Jiff” is correct. I guess we’ll eventually find out, eh?
“Graphics Interchange Format” has a hard G. Why would its acronym be pronounced differently?
Its GIF god dammit!
The hard G differentiates from JPEG. That way, lazy IT people can just key in on bits and pieces of what you are saying.
The hard G is for Graphics!
Another vote for “ping”
Wouldn’t a better question be the “P-N-G” vs. “ping” debate? I think this is easy, but I’m also a “P-N-G” guy…
Go Go Go
Guh. If. Gif.
Yep, that’s the ticket.
Go GIF!
Ever say, “I parked my car in the jarage?” I don’t think so.
My coworker says “Jif” and pronounces the SQL abbreviation for integer as “Init”. Hi Pam! ;-)
Always been Gif to me, never heard of the other one until now. Sounds like an effete blue-state thing, or one of those awful puns that completely socially inept computer nerds come out with before braying with laughter at their own supposed comedic genius. Of course the inventor doesn’t get to say how it’s pronounced. Do the French get to say how we pronounce “Paris”? Does anyone pronounce “Linux” the way Torvalds says it?
Wow! This Say-So has some serious action! And I was “first post!” Nice.
I tip my hat to the “Jiff” posse. I understand that this is the way it’s supposed to be pronounced. But meanings, pronunciations and word usage are, whether for better or worse, subject to change due to usage.
When I was first getting into graphics, computing, and all that, there simply wasn’t a community around me to pronounce anything. I had to read it. It was never spoken and any communication was written (email, CompuServe messages, etc.). And, by deduction, I just internalized “GIF” with the hard “G”. So the point about the hard “G” being “newby” is well-taken and true. Many of the people you are calling “newbies” are the people who have driven the web for a decade now. We were less than teens or in our teens when the format was invented. Yes, we are “new”, but we are they who made all the websites.
And so, “Jiff”-ers, I’m afraid you’re in the wrong now. Correction, you’re not actually wrong, but in the minority. Just as I had to suck it up and feel the pain when everyone decided it was proper English grammar to say “I feel badly” instead of the correct “I feel bad”, so can you bend to the whims of common usage and accept the reality that the word is now pronounced with the hard “G”. My “G”ift to you is sympathy, and I know this does little to assuage your sorrow and the dissonance you currently experience, know that many have gone before you and emerged relatively happy, unscathed and healthy.
One time, in college, I was having a discussion with a Jewish friend. We were talking about the swastika and how, for both of us, it conjured up dread and was irrevocably associated with the war crimes and genocide of the German regime in the 30s and 40s. The conversation was sparked by the fact that we were standing in a tiled hallway in a dormitory that featured swastika mosaics. We read an article about a man who had a “vision” to rescue the swastika from this meaning and had since been covering his body in tattoos of it. His argument was that it was an ancient Hindu symbol, and the Nazis had robbed it of its original meaning. I took his side, briefly. I explained that I thought he was right and that, indeed, it might be beneficial to reclaim the “orginal” symbol.
His response, which I will remember forever, was to explain that meanings of symbols and words change over time. We no longer go around speaking Olde English, and, were we to do so, we would have difficult being understood. So we must consign other old meanings and systems of meaning to history.
“Does anyone pronounce “Linux? the way Torvalds says it?”
They’d better, lest they be subject to my mockery!
For God’s sake, people. For God’s sake.
Gif is a format created by Compuserve and it stands for “Graphic Interchange Format”. Unless you come from a region that pronouces Graphic as “jraphic” you are misprounoucing the word.
c) all of the above
technics components are pronounced(by sales cleks) as technique Piss me off
It would be JIF if it was spelled with a J, but since it’s not…
Jif sounds retarded
duh. don’t be stupid. it’s a hard g.
e’ chiarissimo
Gif like Glenn.
Always have, always will. It’s tough to change.
I Remember Russell Brown explicitly stating it was “JIF” once, but hey, fuck that noize, you know?
Yeah, the inventors say ‘jif’, but what the hey, I always said ‘gif’ – and everyone should be using PNGs (is that ‘ping!’, ‘puh-nug’ or ‘pee-en-gee’, by the way? I say ‘puh-nug’, but maybe I’m odd…).
I hear it the other way and it makes me cringe. I have done my research to learn that it was pronounced by its creators as if it were peanut butter. still cringing.
Though I always feel stupid when I hear it said like the peanut butter and wonder if I’m saying it wrong…
definitely gif
Gif
Always
Hard “g” as in “graphic”.
As if there’s another way to pronounce it :D
I don’t like peanut butter.
It’s clearly Gift. If Compuserve hadn’t been going around claiming it was “Jif,” nobody would ever look at the letters and think “Jiffy.”
Gif not Jif
P N G not ping
F L A not flaw
S W F not swiff
thought i might as well complain about all of them that make me crazy
Hard ‘G’ ala “Graphics Interchange Format”; hard ‘G’ in Graphics.
I still wonder about SQL though…
GIF like “Gift” … but better yet PNG.
the other way is for bluffers!
It’s GIF like “Gift”… unless the acronym stands for “giraffe-ics Interchange Format” :)
The rules of language change by general usage, not by fiat of the originators. There was a Great Vowel Shift in English several hundred years ago, when the pronunciation of most words in the language changed significantly, and nobody in particular made that happen. Most of us like “gift”-style for GIF, and if that persists, then so it shall be.
I used to write “e-mail” with the dash and “Web site” with capital W and a space. I gave up when it was obvious that the usage wasn’t going that way. Those who prefer “jiffy”-GIF will probably have to do the same in the long run.
Oh come on now!!! It’s GIF!!
Saying “gif” shows you had the gift of a good phonetic education.
I had no idea this was such a heated debate!
Definitely.
Every time my high school web design teacher would say “Jif,” I wanted to punch him in the face. Luckily, he was the first and last person I’ve ever heard say it like “Jif” — and I’ve been in the web design field for going on 6 years now.
Don’t know why there’s a question. If GIF is an acronym for Graphics Interchange Format and the G in Graphics is hard, then GIF should be pronounced with a hard G. Right? I mean, I’m just sayin’…
Just doing a little research… The 3 inventors of the .gif format differ in their opinions. Two say jif. One says gif.
I go with gif. It is much more logical.
Those who say “JIF” are probably the same idiots who pronounce SysOp (System Operator) and SysAdmin (System Administrators) as SIGH-sop and SIGH-sadmins (long I as in ‘eye’). It’s sheer laziness of logic; the arguments for “JIF” are neither eloquent nor well-formed— just infantile rants of “It’s ‘JIF’ and no one will change my mind no matter what.”
I like to put a bit of “Grrr” in my speech. Animal nature I guess.
another vote for GIF!
G is for graphics, ain’t it?
Guif se pronuncia como Gafe, como Zapatero, que es un cenizo…
G for graphic
Gift, de toa la vida!
this is STILL going?!?! talk about stringing it out… we’re flogging a dead horse here… the jif camp has gone quiet! we can all go home now….. on the other hand, we can stay and taunt some more… (evil grin)
Giraffe’s worry me though
No podría cambiar a estas alturas…
GIF
gift como lo leo!
For the love of Jod…
If it was Girrafics Interchange Format, maybe…
gif of course
regardless of what the inventors say, there is another graphics file format called .JIF, so pronouncing GIF like GIFT only makes sense.
Gif. Only idiots like my boss say jif.
Hard G. Like Graphics.
jorgeous discussion, just joogled by…
I Know it was originally pronounced GIF (Jiff), but the JIF (java information flow) format is called JIF, like peanut butter. It just makes things easier. Tomato, Tomaaahto.
anything else is stupid
Finally I have proof! “Jif” is just stoopid.
OH MEN, I WANNA HAVE YOUR PROBLEMS…
On the 8:th day god created .gif. But because you cant talk to god (they say something like he will blow your ear of i the bible :s) some people joinded the jif side (spooky ey ;P )
I don’t say either. They’re both arsey.
Gif like Got sg to say
I know that the correct term is jif like “jiffy” but I say gif like “gift” because it sounds better.
A late post to the “right” side of the debate :-)
those who say “Jiff” obviously taught the pronunciation to themselves and never corrected it
Hard G
I know it was pronounced JIF from the beginning but I’ll always say GIF like “Gift”
It only makes sense to pronounce it with a hard G.
shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut the fuck up!
totally thx L…
It is stupid that we even have words giraffe pronounced with j (soft g) sound. I mean why do we even have the distinct letters g and j? How are we suppose to teach The English Language to children or anyone trying to make sense of the it, when we have stupid nonsensical rules that govern the auditory translations of each letter. What if I gave you two number 3 and 7 and said that is some situations the “7” character is pronounced “two”. This is all part of the bigger issue that at some point the English language needs spelling reform!
Yep, english language is full of stupidity. C or K, kane or cane? Synidicate or sindicate, cyndicate, cindicate? Knight, night, gnight? Silent letters are another convention with apparent uselessness. The ‘b’ in comb, lamb, climb. The ‘n’ in damn, autumn. The ‘gh’ in night. The ‘p’ in psalm, psycholgy….etc. The only reason I can see use in saying jiff, is to break away from the boredom of logic.(which is not all ways a bad thing) but just keep your peanut buttery hands away from me.
allways have, allways will
Whatever.
16 years of saying it with a G, no plans to change to a J now.
Jif just sounds kind of nooby, and I’ve never heard anyone say it that way! Maybe it was good enough in 1987, but the world has moved beyond Compuserve (and quantum link too), and the patent has expired. To put it concisely, if you say “Jif” you’re an idiot.
I’ve always said “G I F”, like I’m spelling it.
I’m sorry, it just makes sense
I SAY OUT IN MY HEAD GEE EYE EFF LIke.. G.I.F. WHO AGREES?
Sure.
I was searching the internet for a file attached to a spam email. It was so.gif, and I came across this website. All I can say is that you people have too much time on your hands if you sit infront of a pc to argue how gif or jif should be pronounced. And for the guy who gets so frusterated that he can only use the “f” work to describe himself..he really has a problem and little use of the English language that’s why he tries to emulates an old salt’s lauguage.
I dont like me (the person posted on top of me)
WTF?
when ever i hear ‘jiff’ i want to kill who ever is saying it……
I’m a graphic designer, i do this for a living… i have NEVER heard anyone in my field of work say it as ‘jiff’
ITS GIF, not JIFF
“if, biotchez!”
“melanie’s gayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
melissa and her twin melanie suck dik”
==============================
Comments like the ones above, obviously show the lack of intelligence for the people posting in the right collum.
anyway, regardless of what some webpage from like 8 years ago says, im sticking with .GIF
i have never heard it anyother way.
why the hell would i say it like jif? I’m not going to belive something that was written over 8 years ago, how do i even know that page is right? give me 10 mins, i will have a page exactly like it and saying its gif, not jif.
GIF
surely!
All others are just crazy
definetely gif
Always pronounced it this way, however, just read that it sound like jif. Naww .. just doesn’t sound right .. too much like peanut butter!!
The other may be the way it was intended, but folks in the know use GGGGGif
Graphics Interchange Format
The g in graphics is a hard g. I just choose the one that makes sense when you read it for the first time without other people telling you how it’s pronounced, even if the creator says it’s the other way.
It’s like pronouncing jpeg ‘peg’ because the creator said the j is silent.
How do I pronounce Rogelio Vasquez?
Of course it’s with a hard G. Anything else would be silly.
Although…we pronounce the letter G with a J sound. That just blows my mind.
I automatically discount the person as a whole if they say “jif”
G is such a crazy letter.
i think it is because i have a large penis
Anyone with half-a-clue knows GIF, as an acronym, stands for Graphic Interchange Format … and like any other acronym, should take its pronunciation from the sound based upon the first letters for which it abbreviates! It’s not Juh-raphic Interchange Format, is it? CSSs aren’t Sass-cading Style Sheets, are they? NO!
Ok. Strictly speaking, I’ll give the ‘Jif’ camp that the ‘G’ can be pronounced softly like a ‘J’, but … that’s just stupid and doesn’t follow the convention afforded by the acronym.
It sounds more sane and solid. By the way Graphics Interchange Format begins with G and not J. All my friends also say this way/
Yous lot are a bunch of saddo’s who cares
yep.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gif
it’s with a “G” sound! as it always has been
gif FTW you guys no nothing you all dumb dumb you jiff thats teh dumbbest thing my never heard grammar that way b4 you dumdum
I prefer jay pegs anyways…
Its easier for non native english speakers to have it sound like G. Lets get English to be predictable.
My balls itch
Everyone says GIF with a hard G, so it has de facto become GIF, not JIF. Sure the originators wanted it to be pronounced JIF, but they’ve lost. It’s okay to use split infinitives in English speech now and this change has come through the way people use language. So GIF’s are GIF’s, because everyone calls them that.
Just always said it this way. Friend says it the other way though.
Old habits are hard to break…
Always pronounce it that way… always will
like giraffe
djiff. Thats how i say it
As was already pointed out, I’m right. :)
It annoys me when people say it any other way.
I swing both ways but seem to prefer “jif” mostly.
sif gif
It’s G. I. F…. Say it fast 3 times.
And Bob’s your uncle.
Jif, Spread the word!
If you pronounce it incorrectly with a hard G to my face, you will no longer have a face for I will punch you in the gaw!
methinks the question itself shows some bias
While it really is “JIF”, I’d much rather just have the format disappear in favor of PNG. But of course then we’d be arguing over spelling out loud P-N-G everytime or just saying “ping”.
(…and if such an arugment would occur, I’m going “ping”)
I’ve always pronounced it “Jif” and thought it to be correct. “Gif” just doesn’t sound right to me for some reason I can’t explain.
Jif. And it should be Richard “Jeer”, as well.
It’s like “Jif” because it was originall pronounced with the phrase, “Choosy developers choose Gif.” End of story. There should be no debate.
“Gif” sounds like you’re trying to be “street” and abbreviate “gift.” “Jif” sounds unique; it gives the “.gif” file bite, it gives it edge, attitude and style…man, I should be in advertising.
Used to say “G”if, but switched to “J”if for fun and profit.
Um. Jif. But I don’t get my nappy in a knot over it.
Why It’s JIFF:
1) The inventors said so. 2) It annoys the hell out of the “but it’s a hard G, cause it’s an acronym, not a peanut butter!” crowd.
and
3) The inventors said so.
@Bobby, Captain Darling, Aegir, Shane, cpk: You don’t pronounce an acronym based on what it stands for.
For the g-raphics/j-raphics people:
modem stands for MOdulator/DEModulator…
Do you own a cable Mo-DEEM? No, you don’t, you own a Mo-DEM, even though the original words that form the acroynm would imply the first pronounciation, so you argument is poop.
Jiffy Lube all the way
gif just sounds retarded, I have always said it as jif
Giraffe.
Son of a bitch. This thing just won’t die!
JIF!!!
Jiff, of course.
I don’t know why I choose to say it like “JIF”, maybe it’s because it sounds sexier or easier. I’m just convinced that’s the way it should be.
Yeah, “jay-peg and gif(t) files” roles right off the tongue. It’s jif stupid.
!
It’s “jif.” Jif. Get used to it, everyone.
You don’t call George “Gorge,” you don’t call a giraffe a “guh-raffe,” and the gene pool is not the “geen-pool.”
The inventor says it’s “jif,” not “gif.” So there.
The Oxford American Dictionary says it’s “jif.”
It’s always been pronounced “jif”.
That’s how compuserve pronounced it…and they’re responsible for original standard.
it’s been “jif” since the early 90s…
Stop it. Right now, you insufferable red-state g-morons.
Nothing interesting to say.
“Gif” sounds to me like someone with a speech impediment trying to say “Jif”. “Jif” flows nicely - it sounds better to me. I think that’s why I picked it, unconsciously, way back when.
I think it is pronounced jif… no alternate would sound good. :-)
Over here it doesn’t sound like half a word from a hillbilly
this is so stupid, i can’t believe i actually care.
Creator says “jif”, I say “jif”.
But as a descriptive linguist, I must admit that if this survey and Wikipedia are accurate in that the vast majority of English speakers say it with a hard G sound, then the etymological pronunciation may end up not mattering for much.
I’m old enough to remember RLE, and it’s a soft G.
Oh no…those guys on the other side are the probably the same ones that pronounce Reggie as Rag ghee.
it’s sexier
I say jif. Almost everybody, here in Italy says “jif”. This doesn’t mean that it’s right this way, but.
But.
It’s a test. If you know enough to know that it’s JIF, then the person hearing you knows you know enough and you’re not just a sheep calling it GIF because you’re blindly following the “GUH” in “GUH-raphics”.
Obviously.
Jif, because a ‘g’ is supposed to be soft when preceding an ‘i’.
YES! THE JIF’S WILL TRIUMPH!
“Choosy perverts choose ‘Jiff’”
Simple as that.
“GIFF” = Frank Gifford
“JIFF” = CompuServe Graphic Interchange Format
Sure, it stands for “graphics”, but if you ran into a word that wasn’t an acronym spelled “gif”, it’s pretty clear that’d be with a soft g. So what’s wrong with pronouncing it phonetically? The hard-G-I sound in “ghif” is not a common one in English. I can say it, but I’d rather not.
All the Williams Safire out there can bite my ass. If you care about the word origin so badly, say gee-eye-eff.
gif like gel
You can’t deny fact… it’s jif. Sure Gif sounds better, I even called it that for awhile. But no matter how much I’d prefer to call it Gif… it’s Jif.
When I came of age in computing, that’s how those around me said gif. Now, it is a matter of inertia
Nine out of ten Geoffrey’s agree!
And URL is you-are-ell, too (not “Earl”)