This Is How Linguists Pronounce Gif. Have You Been Saying It Wrong?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hearing this debate quite a bit lately. We all love our Gifs, but how on Earth is that word pronounced?

Photo Credit: Unsplash, Tim Gouw

Some pronounce it with a hard “G”, others say it like “Jif.” So which one is correct? I’m here to report to the world (sorry if you’ve been saying it wrong the last several years), that the proper pronunciation is the latter: so it’s “Jif” just like the peanut butter.

Photo Credit: Flickr, Mike Mozart

It’s easy to see why some are dyed in the wool proponents of the hard “G.” Gif, after all, is short for “graphics interchange format.” So we can forgive those who have been, and will continue to, say it that way. But acronyms work differently. Think about the acronym JPEG. It’s short for “Joint Photographic Experts Group”, but we don’t pronounce it “jay-pheg.” It’s “jay-peg.” Even Steve Wilhite, the guy who created the GIF, confirms that it’s pronounced “Jif.”

This video sums it up. Let’s put this issue to rest FOREVER.