Explanation: Germans used to (apparently only in my bubble) call cellphones “Handy” and many people still do that. My friends from america found that quite hilarious.
“Used to call”? No?!
Most people in my bubble stopped saying that. They usually just say “smartphone” now.
Well you have basically three options in my bubble.
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Handy
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Wischkästla (translates roughly to swipe box)
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Mobiltelefon (mobile phone) this one needs to be pronounced very precisely in order to get the sarkasm of using the old correct German word.
Wischkästla
What kind of demonic incantation is this?
Kind regards,
- Someone from Schleswig-HolsteinWe frankonians just like to call things differently.
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would you use the german equivalent of the work handy or the actual english word handy? and if so whats that word, could you use it in a sentence lol
“Ich habe mein Handy verloren.” “I lost my cellphone.”
With my peers it’s mostly just “phone” nowadays. Likely because landline phones are really rare now.
But fax is still relevant
phone
You mean, your German peers literally use the English word ‘phone’ or do they say ‘Telefon’?
We still call them so.
Using "so"instead of “that”. This guy germans.
As a German. The way you phrase sentences is so similar in both languages at times that it becomes so damn easy to create a sentence which might sound reasonable at first glance, yet doesn’t make any sense if you think about it and/or have a “deep” understanding of thr English language.
Yes. Or even composition of words. I remember during a class discussion translating “Thanksgiving” as “Danksgebung” on the fly. At least I greatly entertained my professor—and I’ll never forget “Erntedankfest”.
When I was doing my exchange year in sweden I had a german teach us swedish in english. It took me while until I realised that instead dictonary she kept saying wordbook.
Yup, slipup.
Naja. So ist es wenn man eine Fremdsprache spricht. Ich genieße nur diese Momenten wenn ich sie identifizieren kann. 😁
Duolingo says it’s handy, and I have no reasons to doubt my green master
Er… I mean teacher!
Did you also tell them about “handy flats” in Germany? (Flatrate für Smartphones)
Its not your bubble, when I learnt German Handy was the word for phone they taught me
I may be wrong regarding that it isn’t widely used any more.
And yes, it was the first word I learned for mobile phone, too.
It is still very common
Oh whats most commonly used now?
idk what circles you guys live in but I grew up in rural south and been living a decade in Berlin. If a German talks to a German and they are not doing nerd talk and are just commoners having a chat they have been and still are using the word “handy”. It still is the most commonly used word to describe a mobile phone in German language
It’s like people are trolling, everyone calls it a handy because that is what it is called.
Duolingo is insistent on calling it a handy. It does my head in.
It is the correct term. I would just like to know who came up with that?
The term ‘Handy’ for mobile phones started to become common around 1992. There are various different theories about the origin of the term but none of them has been conclusively proven.
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In WW2 Motorola produced a Handie-Talkie (SCR-536) that could actually be hold in your hand (the famous Walkie-Talkie was strapped to your back). There have been plenty of successors with the same name but researchers doubt that this was really that widely known at the beginning of the 90s. Yet, one of the first GSM phones by Loewe was subsequently named HandyTel 100.
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German-speaking CB radio circles used the term already before 1992 for hand-held transceivers. There are actually magazines and other things from as early as 1986 where the term is used.
It must have spilled over from these circles to maybe a marketing department (Telekom claims it was theirs, without prove though) to public consciousness.
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Listen, guys. I lived in Germany for my entire life and even though I know that “Handy” is common, I’m trying to say that I personally don’t hear it nearly as often as I used to a couple years ago.
So what do Germans use nowadays?
Apparently, “handy”. In my group, it’s usually “smartphone”.
I’m sure this is where the joke about Germans being overly friendly came from.
What is a handy in the US?
A handjob. Better don’t ask anyone for a handy.
That word will never not remind me of this hilarious Stephen Fry bit from QI 😂
Beat me to it.
Beat meat to it haha gottem
Ich, ein Auslander: “Wie sagst Man ‘Hand’ auf Deutsch? … Ach, ja.”
Reminds me of my first day studying abroad in Germany and trying to ask a random guy at the train station to borrow his lighter.
Me, miming lighting a cigarette: “Wie sagt man—” Him: “Man sagt FEUER!”
I think he meant Natel.
(I hope anyone here gets this…)
Swiss?
🫡 aye
