[Vocabulary] Please keep your cell phones silenced.

[newkeenlearner]

Are these verb and adjectives about cell phones correct?

Please silence your cell phones.
Please keep your cell phones silenced.

There is no definition for the adjective "silenced" in any dictionaries.

 

[Skrej]

Yes, they're okay.

You could also say "Please keep your cell phones on silent (mode).'

 

[Rover_KE]

There is no definition for the adjective "silenced" in any dictionaries.

There doesn't need to be.

Most past participles can be used as adjectives.

 

[Tdol]

You could also say "Please keep your cell phones on silent (mode).'

This sound a lot more natural to me than the original sentences.

 

[Skrej]

The originals are natural enough in AmE, although I suspect the first one is likely more common. I have to use the first one multiple times a week when teaching, unfortunately.

Although, after the first few times I tend to drop the 'please' and start substituting other words....:bad-word:

 

[Tdol]

Asking people to put/switch/set/turn the phones to silent mode works better for me. I don't know if this is a BrE thing or a personal one.

 

[Phaedrus]

At certain mainstream American movie theaters, one commonly hears the following before the movie begins: "[Company Name] asks you to please be quiet and courteous to others and silence your cell phones now." I can't hear "silence your cell phones" without being reminded of it.

I wonder why we don't use "mute." We mute TVs. Why don't we mute cell phones?

 

[andrewg927]

My phone has a mute function that acts like an "on hold" function. If I need to talk to someone else, I just hit "mute" and then hit it again to return to the caller.

 

[emsr2d2]

The "mute" button on our phones at work only work from one end. If I press it, I can still hear what the person on the other end is saying but they can't hear me. The point of "silencing" mobile phones is to ensure they don't make any sound at all even though they are still switched on.