There’s a debate going on over at Say-So, so I thought I’d get some feedback here.  Do you guys pronounce it like the peanut butter, or like something you give to someone?  Do you say it from the letter in the acronym, or the word it stands for?

For the record, I pronounce it the officially correct way, with a soft G.

The only correct way to pronounce it in Sweden is with a hard G.
Also, “GIF” is an abbreviation of “Graphic Interchange Format” and you don’t pronounce “Graphic” with a soft G.

There!

I use the hard G just because I think of it as gift without the t.

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Ditto to Liam. I say gif with a hard G. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t.

So if you say it with a hard G because it’s Graphics, why don’t you say “jay-feg”?  I mean, it is Joint Photographic Experts Group, right?  And it’s easier to say “jay-peg” and “jiff” to me.  Anywho…

If they have a vowel, I just say them as if they were a word. If not, I say the letters. I say H-T-M-L, but I used to say hit-mill (back when I didn’t know what to do with acronyms).

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Liam - 15 November 2005 07:25 AM

I use the hard G just because I think of it as gift without the t.

It is now I think, because the patent has expired.
But I’m not entirely certain.
http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw

Mikael - 15 November 2005 06:09 PM

Liam - 15 November 2005 07:25 AM

I use the hard G just because I think of it as gift without the t.

It is now I think, because the patent has expired.
But I’m not entirely certain.
http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw

IBM also has a patent, but that one expired in august.

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For every form of knowledge there is an equal but opposite form of knowledge.

Liam - 15 November 2005 04:52 PM

If they have a vowel, I just say them as if they were a word. If not, I say the letters. I say H-T-M-L, but I used to say hit-mill (back when I didn’t know what to do with acronyms).

If the acronym doesn’t look pronounceable, I don’t pronounce it.  With the exception of SCSI.  (saying ‘scuzzy’ is fun)

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For every form of knowledge there is an equal but opposite form of knowledge.

Arden - 15 November 2005 10:02 AM

So if you say it with a hard G because it’s Graphics, why don’t you say “jay-feg”?

Because the letter ‘h’ isn’t included.

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For every form of knowledge there is an equal but opposite form of knowledge.

Besides, if you say ‘jiff’ people will look at you funny, especially when they are expecting a file format and get a brand of peanut butter.

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For every form of knowledge there is an equal but opposite form of knowledge.

Spell out GIF.  How do you pronounce the G?

It doesn’t matter if it’s “graphics” or “jraphics” or “giraffics,” it’s how the letters in the acronym are put together.

And to my ears, “giff” grates.

Well there is a picture file format as ‘JIF’ so its only reasonable to pronouce GIF w/ a hard G.  because what would we call the jif format?  Gif?

This is true, but how often do you really use .jif?  Until it becomes widespread (which I doubt will happen), it’s not really an issue.

None of this is an issue.

If you don’t think it’s important… don’t comment.

Thanks, I was going to post that it’s not important. Now I know that it’s not important to post to this monumentally unimportant topic.

I don’t give a lemming’s ear whether .gif is pronounced jif or gif.
spam, spam, spam.