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For Life
2003.07.21

Oops! We forgot about the relatively new national holiday and went ahead and prepared a WordMaster for you today. Consider it a holiday gift!

And we have a whole new set of interesting and useful expressions to introduce to you this week - words used when talking ABOUT and talking ON one of the great inventions of the modern age. We're talking on th90e telephone this week, and we call this series "WordMaster on the Line"! 

Come now and join us for all the fun!

Today's LessonCATEGORY: Useful Expressions
The phone's ringing.   電話が鳴っています。

Explanation

  • The phone's ringing means the phone is making a sound that lets you know someone is calling.

    Be careful:
    Few cell phones actually make the high-pitched bell-like sound we normally think of when using the verb "ring". Instead, they play a melody or produce various electronic tones. Nonetheless, we still say the phone's ringing when a call is made to such phones.
  • The phone's ringing.  は、電話の着信を知らせる音が鳴っている、という意味です。

    注意:
    携帯電話には、着信を知らせるためにベル音(ring という言葉から想像できるような音)が鳴るものはほとんどありません。その代わりに、メロディーやその他の電子音が鳴ります。そのような音が鳴っている場合でも The phone's ringing.  という表現を使います。

examples

  1. (shouting to someone from the shower)
    The phone's ringing! Can you answer it?
  2. a: The phone's ringing!
    b: Okay. I'll get it.
  3. (a receptionist at a busy office)
    The phone's been ringing all day. (= there have been many calls)
  4. (on the phone)
    a: I've been trying to call you all day.
    b: Sorry, but I couldn't hear the phone ring. I was outside in the garden. 
    a: You should have taken your cell phone out with you. You'd have heard THAT ring.

Thanks for calling!