What is the correct/standard and idiomatic British English short form of 'mobile phone' - phone, or mobile?
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2 Answers
We use both but in some circumstances only one would do. For instance you ask someone for their mobile number not their phone number to avoid confusion with their landline number. If you are referring to some other function of the device you might call it a smartphone, for instance telling someone that they can take a picture of something and send it to you on their smartphone. But in general phone and mobile are exchangeable. I suspect most Brits would understand cellphone if they heard someone use the term but would never use it themselves.
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I was wondering if I might canvass you as a member and contributor on ELL to vote in our poll about whether to keep accepted answers? As on Spanish, there's[ a lot to be said for the accepted answer mechanism](tinyurl.com/8j8tnj5m). It's a close run thing on ELL, but we face the prospect of lots of our best and most helpful late answer posts being consigned to obscurity under a piles of mediocre answers! Commented Oct 12, 2021 at 17:46
Most people just say "phone" as now almost everyone uses mobile phones, unless you are making work calls from your place of business. However saying "mobile" means you are referring to just your mobile phone, and not an actual telephone.
