• Perhaps@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    The letter G itself is pronounced with the “j” sound.

    I started out pronouncing GIF by saying the letters: “g-I-f.” It eventually shortens into “jif.”

    • Deuces@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Weird, you could totally spell G as jee. I wonder how many letters you can accurately spell without using the letter itself

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Joint Photographic Experts Group. Not Joint Potographic Experts Group.

        National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Not National Ah-ronautics and Space Administration.

        Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. Not Self-Contained Oonderwater Breathing Uh-pparatus.

      • lanolinoil@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        that’s a single word. When we make acronyms, they’re subject to the pronunciation rules of the new word they’ve become, not the word the letter is sourced from – This is pretty obvious if you think about it for a minute.

        It’s NATO but we say atlantic It’s SCUBA but we say underwater

        • zaph@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          I was addressing “The letter G itself is pronounced with the “j” sound.” because letters can make more than one sound.

          • lanolinoil@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            right but their position relative to other letters form syllables and does have (some) rules. GIF GI-F, like Gi-raf-fe