on/at the phone
Another curious observation:
Today I had to arrange a conference call with two colleagues in Europe, both Italian. I sent them an email saying that I was going to call, and one of them replied:
- I am at the telephone now.
Great, I thought, and called the other person first. She was surprised: "but M. said he was busy!" - No, no, I assured her, if you are using the phone, you say "I am on the phone".
It turned out, she was right. He *was* on the phone. Apparently, it has something to do with the fact that they both were Italian. On the other hand, being Russian-American it never occurred to me, since both in Russian and in English this is literally "on the phone".
Now thinking about that, "on" is not the most natural preposition to use in this situation. What do other languages use?
Today I had to arrange a conference call with two colleagues in Europe, both Italian. I sent them an email saying that I was going to call, and one of them replied:
- I am at the telephone now.
Great, I thought, and called the other person first. She was surprised: "but M. said he was busy!" - No, no, I assured her, if you are using the phone, you say "I am on the phone".
It turned out, she was right. He *was* on the phone. Apparently, it has something to do with the fact that they both were Italian. On the other hand, being Russian-American it never occurred to me, since both in Russian and in English this is literally "on the phone".
Now thinking about that, "on" is not the most natural preposition to use in this situation. What do other languages use?