It’s pronounced GIF.
Is there a “right” way to pronounce it? And why is it so complicated? •
Written with Molly Ruhl and Gretchen McCulloch. Gretchen’s podcast has an episode all about this: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/180153994181/lingthusiasm-episode-26-why-do-c-and-g-come-in
Gretchen’s book BECAUSE INTERNET, all about the evolution of internet language, is available:
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Graphics by William Marler: https://wmad.co.uk
Audio mix by Graham Haerther: https://haerther.net
REFERENCES:
Buck, S. 2014. 70% of People Worldwide Pronounce ‘GIF’ With a Hard ‘G’. https://mashable.com/2014/10/21/mispronounced-words-tech/
O’Leary, A. (2013, May 21). An Honor for the Creator of the GIF. New York Times. Retrieved from https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/an-honor-for-the-creator-of-the-gif/
Olsen, S. The Gif Pronunciation Page. https://web.archive.org/web/20200225141100/https://www.olsenhome.com/gif/
Baio, A. 2014. ‘JIF’ Is the Format. ‘GIF’ Is the Culture. https://medium.com/message/jif-is-the-format-gif-is-the-culture-af8673796c44
McCulloch, G. 2015. Why the pronunciation of gif really can go either way. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/69147/why-pronunciation-gif-really-can-go-either-way
Dow, M. 2020. It’s ‘gif and gif’: The english lexicon goes both ways. https://mcdowlinguist.github.io/2020/08/31/gif-pronunciation.html
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@TomScottGo
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
I realised after upload that I slipped up here: if you pay close attention, you can tell the way I pronounce GIF. Ah well! Also, subtitling this was an interesting job…
@resolvanlemmy
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
It's simple. It's pronounced "gee eye eff".
@CLaw-tb5gg
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
I would personally argue that the only correct form of a language – if such a thing can be said to exist – is whatever is most commonly used at any given time in any given place (thus, what is correct in 1590s Shakespearean English is not necessarily correct in 2020s Indian English, and vice versa – and neither is objectively more correct than the other). Tuh-mah-to is correct in the UK; tuh-may-to is correct in the US.
Thus, if 70% of people say “gif” and 30% of people say “jif” then the answer I would suggest is “‘gif’ is correct but ‘jif’ is acceptable.”
@arrozbyanyothername
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
clearly it's pronounced /gaɪ/
@illusion115
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
Didn't this whole argument only start because the creator started to talk about it? I remember before the creator said anything, people used to say gif like gift. But ever since the creator came out I feel like the whole internet is against each other now. I don't quite get it.
@Yousiftheminer
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
the g in gif is pronounced like the g in gigantic
@marks2053
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
If I know what you mean, then I don’t care how it’s pronounced.
@lucasfergui1024
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
Just pronounce it with a french r to make everyone unhappy rif
@appybane8481
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
Let’s pronounce it as Ji-Ai-Ef
@Riurelia
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
Personally, I pronounce it as "gif" (hard g) because I didn't know what a gif was back then and it made me think of the word "gift" so I stuck with that pronunciation.
@o.lyandzberg2784
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
I pronounce it with a "г" sound. Becuase thays how we say it in Russian. And Russian is my native language and also where I heard the word from. We dont even say "гиф", by the way. We say "гифка".
@Metal-Possum
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
Jraphics Interchange Format.
@demorgr
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
Anytime I hear the hard G I can't help but think the speaker is tech illiterate. Bad habit. There was a debate over this in the 90s but not nearly as much. Soft g is the way for historical reasons. There is no linguistic rule that favors either.
@FarmYardGaming
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
The only correct way to go about this is to spell each letter out every single time.
@ZOSOrulz1
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
Tolkien crawls out of his grave and tells us it's "Jandalf" not Gandalf then dies again
@PrakarSinghKarki-l1f
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
Let me end the debate here. Its pronounced GIF
@DoodleguyzCuzSethAnderson
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
Obviously it's GIF, not GIF! No matter how many times y'all GIF-ers try to tell me it's GIF, I'm just gonna keep saying GIF!
@HammerPriest451
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
2:10 maybe theres more words but how many of those are loan words, vs "gift" being an English word?
@newromenyesayan3855
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
It's "Graphics Interchange Format", not "Jraphics Interchange Format"
@mangosaltt
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
I pronounce it ‘Gee-eye-eff”
@probablyjay3449
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
so uh…ive always read it gee ai eff…? just me? oh. okay.
@Ieonblack
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
its not
@synexiasaturnds727yearsago7
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
It's "Graphics Interchange Format", no acronyms
@anthonybenci9035
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
I just say /d͡ʒi: aɪ εf/ separately
@Cool78250
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
2:32 shows his pronunciation
@HackerDragon9999
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
If you say "jif" because the creator of the format says so, you have to pronounce the Pokemon Hippopotas as "Hippo-puh-toss".
@jamesmikayelyan3357
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
It’s graphics interchange format, not a peanut butter.
@Thumb_
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
I call it whatever who I’m talking to doesn’t call it. It’s funny
@Thumb_
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
It’s pronounced G-I-F
@Chicken_sandwich52
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
Its GIF. Jif is the peanut butter.
@thevoidlord1796
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
The pronunciation of GIF is proof that death of the author is real
@laurisriab2082
August 17, 2025 at 4:02 pm
You phucked it up with an outro tho 😢
Comments are closed.