e[x]tract; g[z]ip; [v]erbose; [f]ile

Reordered, and we can have [v]erbosely e[x]tract g[z]ip [f]ile, or tar vxzf [file]

I find it more difficult to remember other options. Might stick better if pronouncing the g in gzip similarly as GNU insists GNU be pronounced, with a hard g—never really tried it, but sounds a little funny. Actually, I think I first remembered it as g sounding like the, making for extract the zip file, but with a soft g; I felt the former put too much emphasis on a letter not used as an option.