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.
I’m sure this is where the joke about Germans being overly friendly came from.
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.
My German family still does too
My parents recently got a hummingbird feeder and my dad was bragging about how many “Hummers” he was getting in the yard.
His feeder brings all the Hummers to the yard.
Removed by mod
I’m into some of that Gay SM as well.
In Switzerland we also say Natel.
To add a few more details: Natel is short for “Nationales Autotelefon”, which means national car phone. And existed as a brand since the 1970s.
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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What is a handy in the US?
A handjob. Better don’t ask anyone for a handy.
In Lebanon, “Handy” means a cordless landline.
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
In my friend circle, it’s usually just “phone”.
“Used to call”? No?!
Most people in my bubble stopped saying that. They usually just say “smartphone” now.
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’?
They say “Telefon”.
I also do that but I think „Handy“ is still the most common term. When there is any need for clarification for what you mean by „phone“, „handy“ will clear it up for everyone.
I feel that mostly older folks still use the term? Maybe it’s just my friends and I. Ever since I realized what it means in english-speaking countries, I stopped saying it.
Maybe, I’m wrong. But again, I rarely hear the term “Handy” any more.
Ever since I realized what it means in english-speaking countries, I stopped saying it.
Why? Why would it matter what a word means if interpreted via another language? I mean, you go ahead and do what you want, I don’t care, but I’d like to understand the reasoning behind that.
Because I use english during most of the day. Many of my friends are from abroad and only speak english. I consume a lot of content in english, etc.
And in German, I’d even prefer Mobiltelefon over Handy. Ever since I know that “Handy” could be interpreted as “Handjob” in the US, it feels really stupid to use this word. To me, the word now feels like a “boomer invention” and even though it’s in the Duden, I don’t consider it to be correct any more. At least for my own language. There are several words in the German and English languages that fit better.
I don’t understand why it’d be hard to understand that.
It’s not “hard to understand”, I was just interested in your reasons because I thought it was curious. I still don’t agree that it’s a big deal - I also consume mostly English-language media and most of my communication online is in English but I’m still typing this on my Handybildschirm. But you do you.
Sent from my Handy.
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.”
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
