--- description: A new survey from eBay delves into how people utter tech-related words title: GIF: Here's How Most People Pronounce It image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Here's How Most People Believe 'GIF' Is Pronounced by [Katy Steinmetz](/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 19, 2014 9:11 PM CUT by [Katy Steinmetz](/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 19, 2014 9:11 PM CUT The GIF wars rage on. eBay Deals, working with a digital marketing agency, asked more than 1,000 Americans what terms they use to refer to 44 various tech-related things. Among those questions was whether people pronounce _GIF_ as “jiff” or “gift” (yes, with a _t_) or something else. And “gift” handily beat “jiff,” nearly 54% to 41%. The provided answers may not truly reflect the actual sounds people make in real life, given that “giff”—with a hard _g_ and sans _t—_wasn’t a suggested option. (Many of those who wrote in their own answer said they used “gift without the t,” while many others said they like to utter each letter individually, “G-I-F.”) But if we assume votes cast for _gift_ were votes for a hard g in general, it appears advocates for a soft _g_ are likely outnumbered all the same. And that’s despite [the instructions](http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/22/tech/web/pronounce-gif/ "undefined") from the man who created the little moving images in 1987. Other interesting tidbits from the survey, which you can peruse in full below: * _LOL_ remains by far the most popular way to articulate laughter, at 61% to _hahaha_‘s 17%. Among those who rejected all the provided options and wrote in their own were people who express digital laughter as “bwahahahahahaha,” “Jajaja” and “Nyahahaha.” * Smile emoticons without noses \[:)\] are much more popular than those with noses \[:-)\]. [Other research ](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2150609,00.html "undefined")has found that young people prefer to go without a snout. * The revolution of the “hashtag” is not complete. When showed that symbol, 31% said they associated it primarily with “pound” and 26% said the same of “number.” Hashtag took 42%. * More than 30% of respondents said they pronounce _meme_ as “me-me” rather than “meem,” which took 48%. Just over 20% apparently pronounced the word “mem,” like gem. * More people pronounce _data_ as “day-tuh” than “dah-tuh.” * More than 6% of people say they refer to the network you’re using right now as “The Interwebs.” via [eBay Deals](http://deals.ebay.com "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2901967/gif-pronunciation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2901967/gif-pronunciation/"},"headline":"Here's How Most People Believe 'GIF' Is Pronounced","datePublished":"2014-06-19T21:11:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:35.269Z","description":"A new survey from eBay delves into how people utter tech-related words","url":"https://time.com/2901967/gif-pronunciation/","keywords":["Tech","Web"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Steinmetz","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2901967/gif-pronunciation/","name":"Here's How Most People Believe 'GIF' Is Pronounced"}}]}] ```