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Here’s How Most People Believe ‘GIF’ Is Pronounced

2 minute read
By Katy Steinmetz

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 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 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.”

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