Creator of the GIF Sets Record Straight

People who say GIF with a hard G probably also say JFEG instead of JPEG. After all, the P in JPEG stands for Photographic.

/sarcasm
It's a legitimate point, actually, but the difference is that the pronunciation of the P is modified by the letter that follows. We just discard the H when we reason about how to pronounce the acronym. 'Graphics' has no such modifier, so we don't have to worry about it.
 
That guy is stupid. I'm going to continue pronouncing it GIF with a [H]ard G.

Should've named it .jif.
 
Damn. No edit.

Was going to say it is already too late to try and change people.
 
Dear Mr. Creator-of-Graphic-Interchange-Format,

We love what you did for society by providing us a convenient way to build lightweight logos and looping low res kittens. As a token of our gratitude, we have helped you out by correcting the pronunciation error you created years ago.

Thank you,

- The Society for Helpful Acronyms

PS. If you have any Linux friends, tell those assholes that recursive acronyms are like dividing by zero
 
It's obviously Jif because it stands for Jarate Interchange Format.

Jarate! *splash* "I have been shown who's the boss!"
 
I always have, and will continue to call it a [G]if. I agree with others here that [G]raphics (being the first word in the acronym) should dictate how it's pronounced. I don't care if he invented it. He's lost my respect for his pronunciation... Dummy!!! :D (oh, and that's a "Soft D" sound on Dummy....)
 
Today's lesson: Don't let a programmer near english, it doesn't come with a built in bug checker
 
I always have, and will continue to call it a [G]if. I agree with others here that [G]raphics (being the first word in the acronym) should dictate how it's pronounced. I don't care if he invented it. He's lost my respect for his pronunciation... Dummy!!! :D (oh, and that's a "Soft D" sound on Dummy....)

This.

As I mentioned earlier. Just because he wanted it pronounced jif doesn't make him right. You don't get to squabble over acronyms. If he wanted it pronounced jif, then he needed to use a word other than Graphic. To use a word with a hard G then declare the acronym is sounded out with a J, makes you an asshole.
 


G is "Graphic" J is for "Jam", "Jazz", "Jalopnik", and "Jizz", doesn't work with "Jraphic" or whatever the heck that is meant to be, so Gif it is and shall always be. Next I'm going to be told that ZIP files are pronounced with a 'L'.
 
I'm a Gif man too. Okay, you've convinced me the error of my ways Mr. Wilhite.

I've always pronounced it Gif with a hard G. I've seen these comments from the file format creator before, but I just can't be bothered to change.

I've been pronouncing it with a hard G since ~1991 when I first encountered the file format, and old habits die hard.
 
Graphics Interchange Format.

Graphics. Guh. Not juh.
Right on.

Even the creator is WRONG. the G in graphic is a hard G there for the G in GIF is a hard G.
agreed

If GIF were an acronym for Gypsy Interchange Format, I'd be more than happy to say 'jif'. But it isn't.
++

Ironically, they picked the name "Asus" from "Pegasus" and dropped the Peg part so they would show up higher in directories. So theoretically i think it should sound like the end of the word Pegasus but that is not how I hear company reps saying it.
Asus originally was supposed to be "uh-sus". They have officially changed/accepted "A-soos" as the enunciation of it.

So I guess everyone pronounces NASA wrong too since aeronautics doesn't use an "a" sound and administration doesn't use an "uh" sound, how about RICO(I've been reading about the Prenda saga). The letters in acronyms often sound different than they do in the word they're taken from.

I have to say I'm surprised that this is still a "controversy", I haven't heard anyone say gif with a hard g in the last ten years or so and none of the professors in my design classes ever pronounced it with a hard g.

Fair point. Naysah it is.

So....how would you pronounce "GNOME"?

Opening another can of worms, I know =)

Honestly? Both. Started with "guh-nome", now I say "Nome". I don't know (and don't care) which is right.
 
Hi my name is Jack...... no, its pronounced 'Guack', stupid. You are so stupid for not knowing that.
 
So it's said with a soft G, like Vagina. Which this asshole is. He's an asshole vagina.
 
It's like when I go to the range and say the word "clip". It is rare that someone tries to correct me. But, when the do, I just say "I know", and keep saying "clip" instead of "mag". What are they going to do? Pretend they don't understand what I mean. Same goes for GIF, is anyone really going to pretend they don't understand what I am saying when I pronounce it with a hard G?
 
jif? seriously? GGGGGif you faggot. I don't care if you made the format. You are still a faggot.
 
words_that_end_in_gry.png
 
That's like saying all religions are correct.

Nah, more like "all religions are equally correct." ;)

Seriously, though, doesn't bother me if you want to call it gif or jif, I'll be sticking to gif, and if a jif speaker encounters me, we can see who bends to normative social pressure first.
 
It's apparent that people forgot that English is a language with an absolute ASSLOAD of exceptions in it.

Simply because one of the parent words in an acronym uses a different variant of the syllable doesn't mean the resulting acronym MUST.

Here's a few more words that start with soft G.

gentle
giant
gerbil
gestation
gel
ginger
generation
genial
gym
geology
gem
genius
genuine
germ
gerainium
general
giant
giraffe
gentry
geneolo
geography
geriatrics
gene
general
German
giraffe
gypsy

Learn to English philistines.


Yeah. I went there. Suffer.

You missed the most important one:

gib

Let the flame war commence. :cool:
 
Haha

I was just about to post that I say gibs with a hard g too. Yes, I know that is supposedly incorrect on both, but I have two thoughts:
A - If you say it jif and you are within arms reach expect to be hit in the face
B - I've never had a hard cock in the mouth... (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)
 
At Christmas do you get "gifts" or "jifts"?

Anyway its an acronym for "Graphics Interchange Format". The G in Graphics is a hard G, so enunciation in the acronym should also be a hard G.

Why? Because you, arbitrarily I might add, say so?

Try an actual line of reasoning.
 
I've always called it GIF and will continue to do so.

This did make me wonder though if in Spanish, JIF is pronounced as HIF ?

we say it with hard G, at least I do and many of my friends do it too..... but yeah anyone with 0 English experience will pronounce it HIF
 
LOL @ people who pronounce(d) it 'gif' instead of 'jif', or godforbid, 'g.i.f'.

Hope you didn't want to convert it into a Jay Pee Jee file, because it clearly isn't a Jay Pee Gee, and certainly not a Pee Enn Gee
 
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