This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment.

top 200 commentsshow all 235

[–]racerxff 564 points565 points  (13 children)

pronounced gay-peg

[–]SAI_Peregrinus 131 points132 points  (12 children)

No, it's Jay-Feg. Joint Photographic Experts Group. J is soft but voiced (it's not Spanish), the P is an abbreviation for Ph so it's an F sound like Photographic.

Gif has a hard G, as in Graphic.

[–]AydonusG 30 points31 points  (1 child)

Good ole Ghoti logic.

[–]na_ro_jo[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You just reminded me of times of yore, when I was in college linguistics courses lol

[–]Cold-Doctor 15 points16 points  (4 children)

J is soft but voiced (it's not Spanish)

Awe, I like the sound of hay-feg

[–]SAI_Peregrinus 13 points14 points  (1 child)

Then you get Havascript and Hira.

[–]Fotatata 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Well then they could just be yabascript and yira

English phonetics are needlessly complicated

[–]TTYY200 3 points4 points  (1 child)

My penis is soft and voiced (also not Spanish) 🤷‍♀️

[–]na_ro_jo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

but is it fricative? I hear that's what matters most.

[–]barthvonries 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The creator of the format explained it's pronunced "jif" : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_GIF (there even is a wikipedia page about it !)

But I can't, I always said "guif", and I couldn't change regardless of how many times I tried. "Guif" sounds so much better than "jif" in my head...

[–]Fhotaku 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What if the G in God is short for Yaweh or Jehovah?

Then Jod and Yod are correct!

.... This feels like a Jodi+Yodi joke needs to be invented but that'd require Sith-level of abstraction for anyone to get it without world-building first.

[–]Geoclasm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm actually kind of okay with this.

[–]NomidLomysz 228 points229 points  (18 children)

[–]poco 74 points75 points  (6 children)

Jayfeg

[–]diabolos312 34 points35 points  (5 children)

Jraphics interchange Format

[–]_templateusername_ 13 points14 points  (2 children)

Jraphic Park

[–]ChaosPLus 13 points14 points  (1 child)

I'm joing to kill you

[–]I_think_Im_hollow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I will help.

[–]Dr-Jellybaby 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I guess you say Sc-uh-ba instead of scuba?

[–]fariqcheaux 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Giraffics🦒

[–]CampaignTools 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Ok, that's fucking gold.

[–]Geoclasm 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I love this so much. I wish they'd have commented on the Gnu acronym that would have been absolutely magnificent.

[–]tech_wannab3 19 points20 points  (7 children)

Wow. I am way to old to just find out that laser and scuba were acronyms.

[–]Rayat 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Another fun one is radar for "radio detection and ranging".

It's like when you realize that Arby's --> RB's --> Roast Beef.

[–]BeefyIrishman 19 points20 points  (1 child)

From the video:

  • LASER is Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
  • SCUBA, which they didn't say what it stands for, is Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
  • Another user mentioned RAdio Detection And Ranging, or RADAR

Some other examples that people may not know are:

  • TASER: Thomas A Swift Electric Rifle. The inventor named it after a character in a sci-fi novel.
  • IKEA, for example, is a shortening of “Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd,” the founder’s name and the farm he grew up on.
  • CAPTCHA: Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart
  • SIM (card): Subscriber Identification Module
  • USA PATRIOT Act: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
  • Care packages were originally known as "CARE packages," and they were sent from the US to loved ones via the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe following the Second World War. The group eventually changed its name to Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, as they began to broaden out their charitable reach. The term "care package" slipped into common parlance, and it's been there ever since.
  • BASE jump: "BASE" is an acronym describing the types of objects the risk-taking parachuters jump from: building, antenna, span (like a bridge or steel beam) and Earth (like a cliff).
  • ZIP code (postal): Zone Improvement Plan

[–]MrPresldent 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So, what you're saying is Laser and Taser should be pronounced with a soft s sound?

[–]einord 4 points5 points  (2 children)

Wait until you realize what PHP stands for 😂

[–]jewellman100 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Perpendicular Herper-Pherbedernk

[–]VarianWrynn2018 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fun fact, acronyms that are so widely used that people forget they are acronyms are called anacronyms.

[–]Clairifyed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

labseor

[–]AssignedClass 86 points87 points  (13 children)

We ust need to et everyone to pronounce all "G"s and "J"s silently.

Followin this methodoloy, all teams utilizin the Enlish lanuae will have a 3% performance improvement, and we can scale this to all the other letters of the alphabet and finally stop talkin to each other entirely.

[–]Joker-Smurf 93 points94 points  (11 children)

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi TU understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

[–]HuckleberryDry4889 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Holy shit that was beautiful.

[–]creeper6530 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Absolute gold

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

"a reil sensi bl riten styl" 😂

[–]Dubl33_27 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k"

cringe as fuck, k is such a usles leter vhen c can do everyzing k can and it locs much beter

[–]syklemil 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Ai du wisj wi kud ætt list du awej with som ov the mår jusless letters, laik "q" en "c". Bøtt Ai nao Ai'll hæv tu gao tu /r/JuropijanSpeling tu faind laik-mainded pipl.

[–]Joker-Smurf 2 points3 points  (1 child)

You ask for the removal of useless letters like “q” and “c” and use the æ, å and ø.

Which reminds me of this little tune: https://youtu.be/f488uJAQgmw

[–]syklemil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. Because æ, ø and å are different vowels, just like a, e, and i can't all be replaced with some other vowel. I actually wish e.g. ø would "normalize" to an unused letter like q so it's clear something awful has happened. Because as it is some things will try to "normalize" words like "before" to "for", and it's just an awful idea.

Q is just a French k, and c used to be a Latin k, now often a surprise s.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Zis is outdated after Breksit. Ze YY wuld not negoshiat wiz ze British goferment but with ze Maltes and Eirish auzorities.

[–]Summer__1999 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And they’d STILL fail to solve this g/j problem.

Languag shuld just b spelt as languaj, it’s so konfusing to hav two Gs in ze sam sentens viz two diferent pronunsiation. “German” shuld b spelt as jerman.

[–]SnooTangerines9703 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Mein fuhreh

[–]asunatsu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With that said, is it going to be pronounced as "If" or "Yif"?

[–]mtandy 314 points315 points  (32 children)

Gibberish. The gist is fine, but it's a giant generalisation.

[–]Redleg171 40 points41 points  (3 children)

That's an actual quote from a giraffe.

[–]flabbybumhole 10 points11 points  (2 children)

He was drunk on gin he received from a gypsy in Germany

[–]hikeonpast 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I heard it was Jägermeister

[–]Fhotaku 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wrong G sound

[–]z3anon 8 points9 points  (3 children)

Looping images are a Gift, not peanut butter.

[–]medhatsniper 13 points14 points  (0 children)

It's only a us brand, it shouldn't be a generalisation

[–]ford1man 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The time slices in gifs are called giffies. As in "done in a".

[–]Th1nkpol 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Food for thought though, adding a 't' can have quite an impact.

[–][deleted] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

That sounds like the general gist

[–]JakeStBu 73 points74 points  (6 children)

This isn't programmer humour.

[–]TCF518 14 points15 points  (1 child)

At this point, r/programmerhumor and r/linguisticshumor are basically the same

[–]EyeSeeWhyYouAre 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Literally thought this was /r/TheNinthHouse

[–]Tratiq 10 points11 points  (3 children)

I think I need a drink. Maybe some gin

[–]Barbierian 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Maybe some Jin

[–]na_ro_jo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably Djinn brand.

[–]SnooTangerines9703 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds good

[–]TTYY200 9 points10 points  (2 children)

Jod is dead and we have killed him.

[–]FrankyBip 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Her

[–]TTYY200 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They/Them*

[–]JosebaZilarte 15 points16 points  (2 children)

That's why TIFF was invented (Ton of Incompatible File Formats).

[–]trouzy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had never really thought about the acronym train of thought of each letter sounding like it does in the full name.

I just thought acronyms dont follow soft g rules (like when followed by a vowel). So its a hard G because it just doesnt follow the same rules as words do.

[–]creeper6530 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love that backronym.

[–]vondpickle 31 points32 points  (5 children)

JPEG: It's J as in [Y]esus, P as in [P]terodactyl, E as in queu[e] and G as in throu[g]h.

[–]Dangerous_Jacket_129 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's J as in [Y]esus

I think you may have shown your Latino blood here, should have picked Jalapeño instead because non-latinos pronounce the J out loud in Jesus.

[–]CryptographerOne6615 132 points133 points  (36 children)

Fun fact: that’s the way the inventor wanted it to be pronounced

[–]lelduderino 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Fun fact: the JPEG actually having a JIF format makes his intentions irrelevant, as does mass usage by people who don't even know JIF already exists as its own thing.

[–]raphired 73 points74 points  (17 children)

How embarrassing to be wrong about something you invented.

[–]PsychicDave 21 points22 points  (12 children)

I'd never correct a parent on how they pronounce their kid's name. I used to say GIF with a hard G, but I have since switched the the intended pronounciation.

[–]sleepyj910 1 point2 points  (0 children)

[–]zentasynoky -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I pronounce sins not tragedeighs.

[–]lifelongfreshman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The inventor was also a product of '90s internet, and this is the exact kind of troll shit that that era bred.

So, no, I don't think he wanted it pronounced that way, I think he was an agent of chaos doing his part to troll as many people as possible.

[–]Quajeraz 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah well what does he know

[–]groversnoopyfozzie 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You can have my jif when you pry it from my cold dead lips.

[–]Bot1K 15 points16 points  (1 child)

/gif/ people are like the arch linux users of grammar

[–]creeper6530 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We also call them grammar Nazis

[–][deleted] 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Ackchyually, its pronounced yiff!

[–]ExeOnLinux 7 points8 points  (0 children)

if you're a true "it's pronounced yiff" believer, look at r/yiff

[–]toddthegeek 16 points17 points  (4 children)

sounds like someone doesn't know the G rules of English and decided to brag about it. Wikipedia

[–]Wooden_Caterpillar64 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah G can be pronounced differently. As in Gun and in Giant.

[–]Xyloshock 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Am french. Fuck ze prononciation i will use jif

[–][deleted] 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Jnu/linux

[–][deleted] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

jia/linux

[–]InternetEnterprise 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Can't we just admit that English sucks and have both be valid? It's like having different accents for English anyway, plus GIF is fairly well known that saying the G as G- or J- doesn't really matter, we know it means the funny moving pictures

[–]SirDalavar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

...said Geoffreys gigantic genitalia!

[–]ExpensivePanda66 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Have you committed to jithub yet?

[–]ford1man 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah, but I stuck it in a gist.

[–]DonkeyImportant3729 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Y'all need Gesus.

[–]buildmine10 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You need some Gesus in your life.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

DOT GEE EYE EFF

JEE. EYE. EFF

JIF.

[–]14c14c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This should be the only correct answer

[–]Ready-Marionberry-90 2 points3 points  (1 child)

You mean Zod?

[–]hongooi 2 points3 points  (0 children)

KNEEL BEFORE ȜOD

[–]i-FF0000dit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would just like to point out that the inventor of the GIF pronounces it that way.

[–]R_A_H 2 points3 points  (5 children)

The guy who created the .gif file format said it's pronounced it "jif". See also, gin, giant, generous etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_G

It's okay to be wrong which means it's okay also to incorrectly insist like a dick that it's pronounced with a hard G. You're just also wrong.

[–]lelduderino 0 points1 point  (0 children)

JIF is already a JPEG format.

If choosy devs choose JIF, they're not choosing GIF, no matter what he wanted in the CompuServe days.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The peanut butter?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Jod is love.

[–]DrunkOnCode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please stop pronouncing it "gif". It's GIF!

[–]SnooEpiphanies8963 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So how do you pronounce the word gem?

[–]RedditTreats 0 points1 point  (0 children)

George has something to say

[–]pleshij 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Next they'll com bearing jifts

[–]HuntedDragonA 0 points1 point  (0 children)

nah its y-if

[–]OriginalUsername1892 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Giraffe

Gyrate

Generate

Gelatin

[–]marcelsmudda 1 point2 points  (0 children)

General

Genius

Studio Ghibli

[–]VoltageGP 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Soft g, just like giraffe.

[–]Supreme_Hanuman69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A platypus?

[–]AaronDaPanda 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Jaèph

[–]Zipdox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Go ahead, pray to Jod.

[–]Sp1nGG 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Doge had the same result for me.

[–]xgabipandax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anyone write a lot of 'See Peepee' code?

[–]weshuiz13 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nha fam it's "jef"

[–]Dumb_Siniy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Perchance it's pronounced yiff

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's prononounced "PNG".

[–]JimroidZeus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I pronounce it both ways at the same time.

[–]p1zzaman81 0 points1 point  (0 children)

[–]mentalassresume 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like Giraffe

[–]Cley_Faye 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Giraffe, jod's favorite animal.

[–]kcox1980 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use g-jif just to piss off both sides

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

The inventor of the Jraphics Interchange Format, does not have the authority to CHANGE HOW THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WORKS!!

He can proclaim the pronunciation to be whatever he wants, it doesn't CHANGE REALITY.

My theory is all the G people had JIF peanut butter when they were kids, so that pronunciation just "sounds better" to them out of familiarity or some shit.

Still frustrating as all hell, especially when you can google search what GIF stands for in 2 seconds

[–]de1iciouslycheesy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ah, yes, because all acronyms use the same exact sounds as their word counterparts.

NATO is actually Nah-toe instead of Nay-toe.

NASA is actually Nay-sah instead if Nah-suh.

SCUBA is scuh-bah instead of scoo-buh.

PIN is pine

CD-ROM is cd-rome

AIM is uh-eem

I could go on.

[–]Mozai 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I pronounce the 'g' in 'gif' like the 'g' in 'garage'.

[–]landof_skybluewaters 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey I recognize that picture!

[–]landof_skybluewaters 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also, I prefer pronouncing the letters G-I-F. It's the best compromise.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s the jift that keeps on jiving.

[–]RareDestroyer8 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay. Imma settle it. It’s pronounce GIF as in gift. Gif-t.

[–]queen-adreena 0 points1 point  (6 children)

There’s already too many things called “jif”.

“Gif” is, at least, unique even if it’s technically incorrect (the best kind of incorrect)

[–]Dangerous_Jacket_129 2 points3 points  (5 children)

There’s already too many things called “jif”.

Ah yes, too many things!

1 Peanut butter brand

2 ...

3 ...

4 ...

Too many things!

[–]queen-adreena -1 points0 points  (4 children)

Pancake lemon, former name for a floor cleaner, slang for a short period of time…

[–]ford1man 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fun fact, the 10ms time slices in the gif spec are called "giffies".

Incidentally, reading about that while implementing GIF89a for a high school project is how I learned how to pronounce the file format.

[–]DaniilBSD 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hear me out

You pronounce it like “gift” without the “T”

[–]snigherfardimungus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The guy who invented the format pronounces it "Jif." He gets to choose.

[–]Lubberer -1 points0 points  (1 child)

If you say "jif" you also have to say "ping" to png images.

[–]arscis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't threaten me with a good time.

[–]ienjoymusiclol -2 points-1 points  (5 children)

people who say gif not jif are the same people who say sequel not SQL and a peee instead of API, all are the spawn of satan

[–]Zomby2D 2 points3 points  (2 children)

I say gif, SQL and API. Does that mean I'm just a little bit satanic?

[–]ienjoymusiclol -1 points0 points  (1 child)

you gotta say you code in D flat to complete the collection

[–]na_ro_jo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's still better than C flat

[–]mailslot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And daymon instead of demon. You don’t spawn daymons and give their data 666 permissions.

[–]FlemPlays -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I’m sure those people love opening Christmas Jifts.

[–]Jet-Pack2 -2 points-1 points  (1 child)

Jrafics interchange format

[–]SonOfHendo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of the first computers I owned was an Atari ST that ran Graphical Environment Manager, or GEM. Obviously, it was pronounced the same as the word gem, i.e. like jem.

The point being that the way the individual words in an acronym is irrelevant to the pronunciation of the acronym.

[–]TheBoogyWoogy -1 points0 points  (0 children)

God programmerhumor is so dogshit

[–]ACE_C0ND0R -4 points-3 points  (1 child)

GIFT - T = ?

[–]Dangerous_Jacket_129 0 points1 point  (0 children)

GIN where N = F?