# How does the Queen Elizabeth answer her phone **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 23, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114 "2009-04-23T17:08:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/21 "2009-04-23T19:02:42Z")
For some reason I am hearing Graham Chapman’s voice in my head. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/22 "2009-04-23T19:17:50Z")
I figured after she says “Hello”, he says, “Hi, may I please speak to Her Majesty / Elizabeth / Grandma?” and she says “This is she.” That’s how we do it at Chez Zsofia, at any rate. I cannot get used to cell phones where everybody knows who’s calling and who’s picking up. It seems rude to me not to do the dance. ---
**Author:** ![bink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@bink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bink)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/23 "2009-04-23T19:23:33Z")
“Oh hellooooooooooo!” \ ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/24 "2009-04-23T19:31:05Z")
> [@Lambo](#): > > I would guess that the operator, after letting the queen know who the caller is, brings the caller on-line and announces that he is now on the line with her. If I had the money, that’s what I would do. This is mandatory phone protocol at many businesses, and seems like what I’d expect a queen to be doing. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/25 "2009-04-23T19:32:04Z")
There was that one time she used, “S’up, Dawg?” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/26 "2009-04-23T19:33:35Z")
“Yo, talk to the Queen.” ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/27 "2009-04-23T19:36:37Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > This is mandatory phone protocol at many businesses, and seems like what I’d expect a queen to be doing. Right. Then once the queen herself is actually on the horn, she says, “Moshi Moshi.” ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/28 "2009-04-23T19:39:30Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I figured after she says “Hello”, he says, “Hi, may I please speak to Her Majesty / Elizabeth / Grandma?” and she says “This is she.” “This is We.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/29 "2009-04-23T19:41:35Z")
> [@Dublin11](#): > > And more to the point, I bet no one just phones The Queen, apart from her family. It seems far more likely to me that if you want to speak to her on the phone, and you’ve got the political clout for that to be a possibilty, that you have to make an appointment to call at a certain time. I get that, but my point is: no matter how rich or famous or powerful you are, at some point in your life, a phone is gonna ring and it’s gonna be for you. What do you say when you put the receiver up to your ear?!? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/30 "2009-04-23T19:47:14Z")
Actually, as it’s phrased in the thread title, I’m guessing [_the_ Queen Elizabeth (II)](http://www.qe2.org.uk/) answers her phone with a communications officer. ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/31 "2009-04-23T19:51:14Z")
What is the meaning of this! ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/32 "2009-04-23T19:56:00Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > Being that she’s likely not embroiled in the absolute latest in cultural trends, and what with American programming sometimes being delayed in being exported to the UK… > > I’m gonna go with… > > “Wazzzaaaaaaaap” Her voicemail did, for a while. [William and Harry change Grandma’s voicemail](http://www.exposay.com/princes-william-and-harry-pull-phone-joke-on-queen-elizabeth/v/9008/) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/33 "2009-04-23T20:02:56Z")
In point of fact, I suspect she may deal with close friends with some variant on “This is Brenda” or some similar flip line. The Queen is rumored to have a delicious sense of humor in private which she rarely gets to show, owing to the seriousness with which she (and the whole Royal Family) take their duties, and I’m quite certain she knows, and laughs at, the irreverent stuff like Spitting Image – so I could see her doing precisely that. There was a note in the William Safire “On Language” column about 20 years back regarding the appropriateness of “It’s me” as opposed to the ultra-precisionist “It is I” in which the anecdote was told of the Queen in a limo overhearing two young girls arguing about who was in the limo, one maintaining it was the Queen and the other that it was Princess Margaret, and she rolled down the window and said to the girl arguing that it was her (she?), “You’re right. It’s me” – thereby conclusively proving that “It’s me” is indisputably part of The Queen’s English. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/34 "2009-04-23T20:13:25Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Right. Then once the queen herself is actually on the horn, she says, “Moshi Moshi.” To prove she isn’t a fox spirit. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/35 "2009-04-23T20:53:50Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Right. Then once the queen herself is actually on the horn, she says, “Moshi Moshi.” Only if she is talking to an Emperor. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/36 "2009-04-23T22:32:47Z")
If assorted TV programs are to be believed, she does not answer the phone. An equerry or butler answers the phone and announces the caller to Her Majesty. However, in a biography of the Queen Mother, there is an indication that she does answer the phone directly because there’s a comment that the switchboard got to say, “Your Majesty, Her Majesty is on the line.” ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/37 "2009-04-24T04:58:44Z")
On a related note, word on the street is that [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgbrlTAHh8I) is her ringtone. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/38 "2009-04-25T05:07:41Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > “We do, however, have him in an urn.” Not true. He is buried in the Royal Cemetary at Windsor. [Picture here.](http://s3.amazonaws.com/findagrave/photos/2001/222/albertp3.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/39 "2009-04-25T12:04:09Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > Her voicemail did, for a while. > > [William and Harry change Grandma’s voicemail](http://www.exposay.com/princes-william-and-harry-pull-phone-joke-on-queen-elizabeth/v/9008/) “Sorry I’m away from the throne.” That’s particularly funny on this side of the Atlantic where “throne” is a euphemism for “toilet” - don’t know if it is in the UK or not, but the image I got of the Queen answering the phone in the bathroom was not in keeping with the old lady’s dignity. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114/40 "2009-04-25T14:24:55Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > If assorted TV programs are to be believed, she does not answer the phone. An equerry or butler answers the phone and announces the caller to Her Majesty. Since she carries a cell phone - and texts, not bad for an octagenarian - this might once have been true but isn’t anymore. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-queen-elizabeth-answer-her-phone/494114.md?page=3)