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.
this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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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
Ok good I was afraid my vocabulary was out of date
If you wanna be some kind of german elitist and avoid english words, no matter the cost. You could also say "Mobiltelefon". Or "mobile phone" (so basically the bri'ish word)
That's quite funny because over here in Czechia we call them mobil
i can confirm that in (the german-speaking parts of) switzerland "handy" is the only word i've ever heard used to describe a smartphone
In my friend circle, it's usually just "phone".