Gif stands for Graphics Interchange Format. when graphics is pronounced “JAFFICKS” Then I will pronounce Gif with a “J”
^ This
It’s followed by an R of course it would be a hard g. But Giraffe is a soft g. Genius is a soft g. Gin is pronounced with a soft g too. GIF is I following a g, it would be pronounced with a soft g.
It aint Jif peanut butter though.
It would still be pronounced like that. The general rule is if the g is followed by an e or i, it’s soft g. U or a consonant is generally a hard g.
I will DIE WITH MY HONOR
Gear =/= Jear
Get =/= Jet
Gift =/= Jift
Give =/= Jive
In English, words with a ‘G’ followed by an ‘e’ or an ‘i’ can be pronounced with either a hard ‘G’ or a soft ‘G’.
Words with Germanic roots such as ‘gear’, ‘get’, ‘gift’, ‘give’ (see above) are pronounced with a hard ‘g’ while words with Latin or Greek roots such as ‘gem’, ‘general’, ‘giraffe’, ‘giant’, are pronounced with a soft ‘g’.
So no, it’s not exactly a “general rule” that ‘g’ followed by an ‘e’ or an ‘i’ makes a soft ‘g’ sound.
Additionally, “GIF” is an ACRONYM starting with a word that begins with a hard ‘g’ sound, so “GIF” is therefore pronounced with a hard ‘g’.
We fight with honor
The gifs though.
I pronounce it with a hard G, but I reject the notion that “graphics” being pronounce with a hard G means that an acronym or initialism needs to follow the same rule. The acronym or initialism is free to follow its own rules, and you can ask an RCMP officer, an FBI agent, or a UN spokesperson for clarification.
The primary goal of communication should be clarity, and for the sake of clarity, it should be GIF with a hard G. Why? Because there is also a .JIF (and JFIF) type extension which is an entirely different thing, and there’s only one possible way to pronounce that one.
*now* I can reblog, because there won’t be a better reasoning than that ^^^
Another line of reasoning: people write Do you pronounce GIF as “gif” or “jif”. And if you think it’s a soft g, the question is nonsensical because both of those pronuncions are the same. You literally write “gif” to mean it’s a hard g. Because it obviously should be a hard g.