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As a German visiting the US (social.fossware.space)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by NettoHikari@social.fossware.space to c/memes@lemmy.ml

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.

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[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] SternburgExport@feddit.de 17 points 1 year ago

It is still very common

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Oh whats most commonly used now?

[-] pwalker@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Ok good I was afraid my vocabulary was out of date

[-] Felix@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

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)

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

That's quite funny because over here in Czechia we call them mobil

[-] DaPorkchop_@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

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".

this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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