Why is GIF pronounced JIF?

June 1987:
Steve Wilhite releases the Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, while working for Compuserve. He called it a GIF with a soft g. “Choosy developers,“ he reportedly said, “choose JIF.” This was of course a play on the peanut butter brand Jif's line “choosy mothers choose Jif.”
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Why is it pronounced Jif and not GIF?

The creator of the GIF image format, Steve Wilhite of CompuServe, when deciding on the pronunciation, said he deliberately chose to echo the American peanut butter brand, Jif, and CompuServe employees would often say “Choosy developers choose GIF(jif)”, playing off of Jif's television commercials.
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Why do people pronounce GIF wrong?

In 1987, Steve Wilhite invented the GIF while working as a programmer for CompuServe. The GIF pronunciation debate has been around since then, with an unofficial majority preferring to pronounce it with a hard 'g'. The logic behind this pronunciation comes from what GIF stands for: Graphics Interchange Format.
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Why is gift pronounced with a hard G?

The "G" in GIF stands for Graphic, which is pronounced with a hard G. It's Graphic Interchange Format; Not Jiraffic Interchange Format. "Gift" is GIF's closest neighbor.
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Is it Jif or GIF peanut butter?

Although Jif is obviously pronounced with a "soft G," people often mispronounce the word "GIF," which is short for Graphics Interchange Format. It's said with a "soft G like the peanut butter and not a "hard G." That's according to creator Steve Wilhite, who made the declaration in 2013 while accepting a Webby Award.
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It’s pronounced GIF.



How do you pronounce GIF peanut butter?

For what it's worth, which is everything at this point, Steve Wilhite, who invented the GIF file back in 1987, told the New York Times that it's definitely pronounced softly, as in “jif.” What's more, he even based the name of the file on this very company's staple of American cuisine. That's right.
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What GIF means?

GIF, in full graphics interchange format, digital file format devised in 1987 by the Internet service provider CompuServe as a means of reducing the size of images and short animations.
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Why is soldier pronounced with AJ?

Therefore, soldier is "sold-yee-er", said quickly becomes "soljer." This is also how the "J" got added to the English language; they started adding the "d" sound before the letter "I" (pronounced as "yee", so it became dyee, which became "j"), especially at the beginning of words.
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Do you pronounce the E in Nike?

The correct way to pronounce "Nike" is so that it rhymes with "spiky". So if you've been pronouncing it that way this whole time, congratulations – you've been right! But if you've been saying it so that it rhymes with "bike" or "like", however, we're sorry to tell you that you've been doing it all wrong.
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Is GIF pronounced YIFF?

“It's pronounced JIF, not GIF.” Just like the peanut butter. “The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations,” Wilhite told The New York Times. “They are wrong. It is a soft 'G,' pronounced 'jif.
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Is it pronounced Carmel or caramel?

Caramel is pronounced with three syllables. Carmel, the city, is pronounced with two syllables. You can use the number of syllables in each word to link it with other nouns of the same type: caramel and aerogel are both three-syllable common nouns, while Carmel and Arnold are both two-syllable proper nouns.
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Why is G pronounced as J?

The letter “g” makes the /j/ sound when followed by an “e,” “i” or “y” in a word that is often derived from Greek or Latin (these languages do not use the “j” symbol to represent the /j/ sound). I like to refer to the “g” making the /j/ sound as being a part of the Stick Vowel Rule.
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Why does G make two sounds?

Unlike the letter c, which is an alternate spelling for the sounds of k and s and has no sound of its own, the letter g does have one sound of its own: the “hard” sound heard in glove. The second sound of g, the “soft” sound heard in giant, represents the sound that belongs to the letter j [j].
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How is gyro pronounced?

That gyro has two main pronunciations: /YEE-roh/ and /ZHIHR-oh/. The sandwich gyro was borrowed into English from Modern Greek in the 1970s and English speakers have given it an approximation of the Greek pronunciation. The earlier gyro has been fully phonetically anglicized.
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How is salmon pronounced?

The pronunciation of salmon is often object of confusion. In English, the correct pronunciation of salmon is sam-un. The "l" in salmon is silent. However, in certain dialects and varieties of English salmon is occasionally pronounced with an "l".
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Why do the English say mum instead of ma am?

What you are hearing is not mum as in mother, but ma'am, contraction of madam, with a strongly reduced vowel. In British English, it is mostly used as a sign of repect for a woman of superior rank, say, in the military or police.
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Why do we pronounce Wednesday wrong?

As Wōdnesdæg moved from Old English to Middle English, its spelling changed. It became "Wednesdei" and the "d" remained, even as the word morphed into "Wednesday." Wednesday is just one example of words — like February and ptarmigan — where letters appear in a word's spelling but not in its pronunciation.
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Is the P silent in empty?

It is not silent, but it is not emphasized because it is difficult to pronounce p before t. But it is definitely not silent. Just don't emphasize it so that you add a syllable and wind up saying "Em-puh-tee."
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How does Steve Wilhite pronounce GIF?

It is a soft 'G,' pronounced 'jif. ' End of story.” He reiterated that stance while accepting a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for the invention of the GIF later that month, using an animation to give his acceptance speech.
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What is a meme vs GIF?

The main difference between an animated gif and a meme is that memes tend to be static images that make a topical or pop culture reference and animated gifs are, more simply, moving images. You can find all the animated gif memes that your heart desires at website such as Giphy and Awesome Gifs.
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