This week's poll was suggested by thepol. How do you pronounce GIF?

You can submit poll ideas here: https://www.mangaupdates.com/topic/kilkdnn/site-manga-poll-suggestions

Previous Poll Results:

Question: What's your current living situation?

Choices:

• Living with parents - votes: 1343 (55.4%)
• Living with just partner / spouse - votes: 201 (8.3%)
• Living with partner / spouse + children - votes: 93 (3.8%)
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There were 2425 total votes. The poll ended: April 19, 2025

Honestly, this question is better off as a survey with follow up questions. Oh well

A just ruler amongst tyrants

Гиф

I mean "jif" is just way more confusing even if that is what creator of the format wanted... So i go for less confusing option of hard g...

I am envoy from nowhere in nowhere. Nobody and nothing have sent me. And though it is impossible I exist. © Trimutius

Wikipedia has an entire article on the subject, since there's no general consensus, in part, because English pronunciation of "gi" has always been irregular, even in Old English.

Personally, I consider all of three options correct. However, I pronounce it with a soft g, as do my brothers. The soft g pronunciation (in IPA: /d͡ʒɪf/) is in fact how its inventor says it's supposed to be pronounced. More importantly, it's best in terms of intelligibility, at least in the English dialects I'm familiar with (other dialects might differ) — which in this case is a good deciding factor.

Hard g is also kind of ugly sounding when followed by /ɪ/ and one simple consonant (which I honestly like in the case of words like "git," since it adds emphasis and impact, but only there). The aesthetic angle is, of course, 100% pure preference — not exactly proper basis for pronunciation. But when there's a better-sounding equally-correct alternative, I'll take it.

The supposition that an acronym should use the way the letter is used in the word it is standing for, strikes me as a very after-the-fact sort of justification given not just "NASA," "scuba," and "laser" but also the number of polygraphic phonemes ("sh," "ch," "ph," and either "th" are all clear examples).

Moreover, with a hard g (in IPA: /ɡɪf/), it sounds far too much like "gift," "gig," or "git" — that's either confusing or derogatory. Yeah, no thanks. (I find an initial /ɡɪ/ even more confusing due to having had a partial knowledge of Yiddish for as long as I can remember. What's transliterated "gi-" (at or near /gɪ/ or even /gi/) is an alternate form of what's transliterated "ge-" (at or about /ge/ or /gə/ — it's dependent on context and dialect): a part of my brain keeps telling me "verb!" and rebracketing the "f" onto whatever word follows. So that might make me something of an outlier.)

(Unfortunately, linguists don't seem to have ever done a poll on the topic which distinguished between regular native English-speakers, speakers with more than one native language including English, or ESL-speakers — let alone kept track of which other languages were native. As for "gif," globally, the hard g pronunciation is most common, but soft g is found in fewer major languages, which obviously effects pronunciation by ESL speakers. This complicates things for English dictionaries, since they have no proper sources for determining which pronunciation is most common in when speaking English natively or fluently.† The two best English dictionaries are divided: the Oxford English prefers soft g, the Merriam-Webster prefers hard g.)

As for pronouncing "GIF" as an initialism (in IPA: /dʒiː aɪ ɛf/), I generally find that clumsy for the most part (basically any use of initialism for acronyms of three or more letters with at least one diphthong or polysyllabic letter name, or more than one glottal stop; "G.I.F." has both a diphthong and two glottal stops). Honestly, the "G.I.F." pronunciation seems to be most common when repeating after the listener misheard the first time. Or, in other cases, to avoid arguments. Or out of sheer lack of usage (my dad is in this camp; he rarely mentions or thinks about file formats which he's unlikely to use in photoshop).

†For dictionaries of any language, what matters most is the pronunciation by native and fluent speakers — non-fluent second-language speakers more often than not have pronunciation quirks (it takes years of hard work and the right sensitivities for second-language speakers to be able to pronounce things without discernible quirks — kudos to all who succeed, you have my utmost admiration). I'm disappointed with any non-English dictionary which puts general English pronunciation into account for the typical pronunciation of loanwords. Just as I am with English dictionaries when they put foreign pronunciation into account for general pronunciation our own loanwords (that's two-thirds of the Modern English lexicon; interestingly, in speech, we use those two-thirds a little less than a third of the time).

I don't believe there's one "right" answer since both hard g and soft g are widely used, it's easy enough to understand either way, and I despise linguistic prescriptivism, but personally I usually say it with a soft g.

I've seen people make silly arguments about how "graphic" doesn't start with a soft g, but that's just not how acronyms work; if it was, we'd be pronouncing NASA and scuba differently.

If we can live in a world where words like pecan and either have multiple correct pronunciations, I don't see a reason why people need to make a fuss when someone pronounces "gif" differently from how they say it aside from pointless pedantry.

Gif like gift without the t

Gif like jiffy without the fy

Or G.I.F like in a spelling bee

When it comes to files with a ".gif" extension: As most people say it, and as is the most intuitive (at least for anyone who isn't a monolingual English speaker), a hard G. Yes, the creator(s) intended it to be a J-sound, but...

However, for non-".gif" animations, or (quite commonly) straight up video files. I instead pronounce it as "THAT'S NOT A GIF!!! 😠"

As a non-English native, I use the hard G because the letter is always pronounced like that in my language. Even if the correct pronunciation would probably be with a soft G (not sure, though), I'd probably use the hard one. Dunno, it just sounds better to me. Besides, it comes from "graphic", so the hard G makes sense, I guess.

No, no, the real pronunciation has always been ZHAIF (ʒaɪf) with the g like in gendarmerie or beige, and the i like in title or vile

/s

A ᴅᴜᴅᴇ ᴡʜᴏ ʜᴀs ᴡᴀʏ ᴛᴏᴏ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡᴀʏ ᴛᴏᴏ ᴍᴜᴄʜ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴏɴ ʜɪs ʜᴀɴᴅs.

On one hand, the G in gif is Graphics. On the other, we aren't pronouncing the P in jpeg like in Photographics. On the third hand, it's funnier to go with whatever pronunciation that makes people who are actually annoyed by how people pronounce things mad

Anyways I say we should start pronouncing it "hif" to make everyone mad. Or "yif" for the PERVERTS out there, I got you

Quote from Ruruskadoo

I don't believe there's one "right" answer since both hard g and soft g are widely used, it's easy enough to understand either way, and I despise linguistic prescriptivism, but personally I usually say it with a soft g.

I've seen people make silly arguments about how "graphic" doesn't start with a soft g, but that's just not how acronyms work; if it was, we'd be pronouncing NASA and scuba differently.

If we can live in a world where words like pecan and either have multiple correct pronunciations, I don't see a reason why people need to make a fuss when someone pronounces "gif" differently from how they say it aside from pointless pedantry.

Well said. I also use soft g, for people who make that stupid "jraphic" joke, I ask them "so do you say j-feg?" JPEG is short for "Joint Photographic Experts Group".

The one argument from their side that is like at least vaguely acceptable is that the only word starting with gif in the english language is "gift", but english is soooo inconsistent, some people seem to think "gi" is ALWAYS pronounced with a soft g because they're too stupid to remember that words like "giraffe" exist.

Personally I go with jif because that's what the creator intended. Nothing more and nothing less. I also refuse to pronounce "Arceus" in the post-movie dub way, the creators clearly intended it to be "are-say-us" based on the original katakana.

Also, side note: the website giphy uses the soft g. But in my personal opinion, they lost out on SO MUCH POTENTIAL by doing that, because pronouncing it like "jiffy" would make for such a great pun on how fast and convenient it is to use their website to find specific gifs. WHY WERE THEY SO SHORTSIGHTED???

Quote from HikaruYami

for people who make that stupid "jraphic" joke, I ask them "so do you say j-feg?"

No, I say potograpic! 😛
Just kidding. We all know, that Jpeg, (similarly to JRPG, Jpop etc), stands for "Japanese peg"!

I also refuse to pronounce "Arceus" in the post-movie dub way, the creators clearly intended it to be "are-say-us" based on the original katakana.

Okay, jokes aside:
I had to look up, what "Arceus" is, and...
No.
There appear to be two different notions, of where the name comes from and, either way, it should be pronounced with a /k/.

I pretty much never consider it sensible, to insist on using the mispronunciations/misspellings of the Japanese, of non-Japanese words or names. (there are exceptional cases, like if it's involved in a pun, or something)
Sure, established loanwords and the like, have to be pronounced/spelled as they are pronounced/spelled by the Japanese. (even if it's nonsensical. You can advocate for a change, or for the abolishment of the term, but... [and it's not like loanwords, in the West, are always sensible, either])
...but names/terms in a manga...
No.

First off a minor possible usage confusion: while all monolingual speakers are native, not all native speakers are monolingual. (Unless you meant "speakers whose only native language is English", and I am overthinking as usual.)

I'm guessing you already know this but: While monolingualism is disappointingly common in the Anglophone world, due second languages being a required part of mandatory education in many English-speaking countries and the sheer number of people involved, the total number of multilingual native English-speakers is not small.

Additionally, as per my pervious post, soft g is less common globally than hard g. Moreover, "gi" has never had a regular pronunciation in any form of English. So, yes, the hard-g pronunciation is indeed globally more common, but whether this has something to do with native versus second-language English-speakers, English dialects, or some factor or factors has not been studied at all.

As for the animations: that's by extension of some gifs being short animations. It's metonymy. Albeit a very annoying example of metonymy. It'd definitely be better if we English-speakers referred to those moving gifs and those moving not-gifs as something along the lines of "animations" or perhaps "clips," but that's language for you.

Quote from blackluna

First off a minor possible usage confusion:/.../

I am perfectly well aware of all that, and specifically specified, that I referred to people who are monolingual English speakers.
Not native English speakers, who also speak a different language
...and keep in mind, that being monolingual, means not having learned another language, as a Second Language, either!
That you only know English. That you, at most, have some minor knowledge of some other language(s).

I'd also like to point out, that I am a multilingual native speaker of English. (don't live in an English speaking country, nor is it the language of either of my parents, but I still stared acquiring it since before I could even crawl, so... That is, in addition to my mother tongue, and the language of the country I'm in. I.e. I grew up trilingual ...and also learned a Second Language in school, and have taught myself some Japanese)

due second languages being a required part of mandatory education in many English-speaking countries

In the UK, sure, but outside of that: Is it?
Also, given the level of language ability you see, among most who've gone through mandatory foreign language learning, in mandatory education, i.e. just remembering a few words and phrases...
That clearly doesn't count. Only those who actually properly learn the language(s), and don't relatively instantly forget them, are relevant. There are some, sure, but not any numbers that are particularly significant, in terms of this issue.

but whether this has something to do with native versus second-language English-speakers, English dialects, or some factor or factors has not been studied at all.

...
Do we really need a study, for something so obvious?

As for the animations: that's by extension of some gifs being short animations. It's metonymy.

Yes.
And it's just simply wrong!
Especially in the case of outright videos, and especially ones that even have sound!
(also the quality of animation-creators, has dropped massively! The files are filled with superfluous crap, that only serves to increase the file size. Back in the day, the software would try to optimize things, to get the size down. Without anything about the animation, being even faintly different/worse)

but that's language for you.

No, that's not language, it's idiots and morons.

I find people (not including you) who comment on any and all changes in language, as "that's just what happens to languages/words" and oppose any and all criticism of it, and are 100% against prescriptivism, to be very annoying and unutterably foolish and stupid.

Sure, extremist prescriptivism, that opposes any and all changes to language, is just plain wrong
...but to say that all changes are to be blindly accepted, and that you shouldn't apply some degree of prescriptivism, is asinine, incoherent, detrimental, and also utterly fails to understand how changes to language occur.

Most changes involve active choices/decisions. Not some force of nature. Some have involved debate and controversy, with people arguing for and against, and the resulting change, being a reflection of which position won out, and which position lost.
While some changes are neutral, and some are improvements, some are most certainly detrimental, and should absolutely be opposed.

Also, a very big factor, in making people equate "gif" with any and all animations, or even small video clips, is the many sites and platforms, which label animations/clips as "GIF". Those are very influential.
Again:
Changes in language is not something that just happens, as a force of nature. It is people, and organizations (specifically companies, in this case), who change it ...and who can reverse changes.