There is one group of people who say you need to start it with a J sound, and others who pronounce it more like the word gift, without the T at the end. One of the most controversial things about a GIF is how you pronounce the darn thing. It's a collection of images that look like an animation, but it is not a video, and it is all contained in one file. Sexual GIFs? What's a 'GIF'?It's a unique type of image that popped up back in the late 80s.