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this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2025
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id vibe with jayfeg if it meant everyone pronounces gif correctly
Steve Wilhite (engineering lead on the team that created GIF) said the soft g is the right pronunciation.
original comment
Because at the origin of the format, "choosy graphic designers choose .GIF". Which is a direct reference to JIF, the brand of peanut butter, and their tagline.
The pronunciation of an acronym often has little to nothing to do with the words themselves they represent, and more to do with the acronym itself as though it were a word.
So they decided how it should be pronounced based on a cheap marketing ploy, even less reason to care how the creators said it.
but there's already .jif!!!!
Reverse that.
.jif (jpeg interchange format) came out 5 years after .gif.
It was an homage to GIF.
Edited to add: Also no one ever really used it.
If you pronounce gif based on the word itself, it would clearly have a hard "G". I don't think it's decided by the creator anymore then by the words making up the acronym either.
Imo, word pronunciation and meaning depends on whatever "takes" in society. Most just say it like it would sound, the creators pronunciation clearly lost.
That’s just incorrect. Multiple studies have shown that how you think a word is pronounced is based on other words you know, not what the actual pronunciation is. When I first saw the word gif, I pronounced it with a soft g. Turns out that’s the correct pronunciation (because it’s a product name, not a random word) but if I had happen to have heard a hard g word more recently then I probably would have thought it was pronounced the wrong way.
The closest word to gif is gift for me. I think that's the conclusion most come to and why the hard G is the most common.
A pronunciation that is common and widespread becomes the correct way to say something. Languages are constantly evolving and in movement. They don't care for what a few or even the words creator want.
You’re literally just making up things at this point. Just because you thought that does not mean even a slight minority thought or thinks that.
Did a quick search for a survey, first link has 77% pronouncing it with a hard g:
https://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2016/11/08/results-of-the-gif-survey/
You're welcome to present a survey that shows a different result.
You’re just changing the conversation. You said “the closest word is gift… that’s the conclusion most come to”. Which is just not provable. The reason the number is so high for hard g (I have a different survey that says 51% in that same year) is because people like you thinking that you know the “rules” of English and then telling everyone to pronounce it hard g. So their first encounter with the word is literally someone pronouncing it wrong. It has nothing to do with them associating it with “gift”.
Edit: you’re not even the person I was talking to so you’re definitely stepping in and saying things that have nothing to do with the convo.
Correct. You are having a conversation in a public forum. If you want a private conversation take it to PMs. I was replying to the specific thing you said that I quoted.
The fact that you could not follow that despite me quoting the relevant sentence, and did not notice I was a different person, shows you are not paying attention to what is actually being said.
I mean, they got to name it... How it sounds is part of that...
How long have people been talking about how to pronounce gif?
I don't think there are any winners or losers here.
I agree there are no winners, there have been plenty of losers.
How it sounds is a lot more related to basic prononciation rules then the arbitrary whims of the inventor.
In this case, he chose to name it GIF which is, believe it or not, pronounced gif in the English language. If he wanted to have it sound like jif, he should have named it JIF.
Not to say that we don't sometimes disregard the rules for certain words. Ultimately a words meaning and prononciation is collectively decided through usage. I think collectively, we have chosen to ignore the creators lack of basic linguistic skills and prononce the word how it's written.
Thank you, at least there's one other person in here making this decision based on reason and not emotion.
Incorrect. There are ZERO rules that decide whether a word starts with a hard g or a soft g.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_G
There are patterns so to speak. Rules isn't the right word. In any case, my whole point is that rules or what the creator wants dont matter.
The proper prononciation is the most common and widely used one since languages are constantly evolving.
If you read my name, and I pointed out that your pronunciation was wrong, would you tell me my pronunciation is incorrect due to pronunciation rules rather than how my parents named me?
Edit: and I'll just note, a soft g is very well defined, and is usually behind an e, i, or y, while a hard g is typically behind an a, o, or u, but let's focus on the whole "who gets to choose how a name is pronounced" bit for a moment.
This g isn't behind anything, it's in front of an i. Add a t to the end of it, that's the most similar word in the entire language. The people using the word choose how it's pronounced, that's what language is.
Gist Digit Giraffe Fragile Vigilant Gingerly Geological Agile Engine Original Region Allergic Longitude Giant
Tragic.
A words meaning and prononciation is collectively decided through usage.
I agree. I know a ton of people that say it one way, and a ton of people who say it the other. At this point, like many English words in a similar scenario, both pronunciations are valid. I prefer to use the creator's pronunciation, but I think saying it the other way is acceptable. At this point, everyone will know what you're talking about regardless of pronunciation.
So the creator, the way a soft vs hard g is used in the English language, etc, none of that matters.
Noted, enjoy your day.
Girl, gift, gig, giggle, giddy, gizzard, gibbon, girth, girdle.
It's not uncommon.
But yes, what matters most is how people prononce it. Even if this goes against what the creator wants.
The main dictionary websites wouldn't have the hard g prononciation if the creators will was the defining factor.
You know I daresay that basically your exact comment is what OOP was responding too on reddit.
Wouldn't doubt it.
Some folks get unreasonably mad about what they consider "right".
That's,,,, exactly what it sounded like you were doing...
I'm pointing to the lead of the team that created it. They get to name it, not me.
I'm also not oddly mad about it like the person replying to me with lots of exclamation points, the user in OPs image, or the person using their alt that has only been used to downvote people they are in conversations with for the past few months.
All I said was the people responsible for it say its a soft g, not a hard g.
Wow. You did a lot of research into who has been downvoting you for someone who isn't mad about this...
Not really, no, I'm playing with the client communication so I can contribute updates, so ive been using a rather fugly web interface I made. Up/downvote activity is visible in that.
Sure, there's "I can see downvote information" and then there's "I took the effort to check the history of this person who downvoted me and go into the context thread for those downvotes in order to recgonize this other user name being common in them... And I went back far enough to see this trend for months."
When it repeats on certain conversations it becomes a bit obvious, and full history of a user is visible with a single click.
Its really not the effort you think it is.
We already pronounce it correctly.