Talking about your Cell Phone in English

I have a cell phone and the thing I use it most of is as a flashlight. I know, it is bizarre. In the middle of the night if I wake up, I can click on my phone and then I can see. The 2nd greatest use of my cell phone for me is to use it as an alarm clock. I own a regular one, but it’s too loud. Finally, the 3rd most imporant use of my cell phone is to use it as a phone. I don’t have a fancy phone, in fact it was free. My husband has an iPhone and I like to play with it from time to time. It has come in handy, more times than I can count, for helping us to find our way to a specific location using the GPS feature.

Here are all of the names we use for a cell phone: mobile phone, car phone. We also call them by their brand name: iPhone and Blackberry.

I can’t get a signal. – This means you are unable to place a call because your service isn’t working where you are at. This happens to me all of the time in the grocery store.

I can’t get service here. – This means the same as the one above.

I’m only getting 1 bar – You can talk about how many bars of reception you are getting as well.

I’m not getting good reception. – You can say this to someone when they are fading in and out or you can barely hear them.

I’m loosing you. – You can say this if the reception is getting bad, for example on an elevator or driving through the moutains.

My battery is dead. (This is my husband’s excuse for why he never answers his cell phone.)

I need to recharge my phone. This is what you do when your battery is dead.

Call me back! – A common message one leaves on someone else’s voicemail.

Ring tone – You can select different sounds for your phone when you receive a phone call.

Phone tag – If you and a friend keep calling each other and missing each other’s call, it is called phone tag. You can leave a voice mail for them like this: “Tag – you are it!”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *