Hi everyone! This is “Impara l’italiano in pochi minuti”, a series of video-lessons of LearnAmo which will help you to improve your Italian in no time! In today’s video you will find out how Italians dry their hair: fon, fono o phon? Italian spelling is tricky…
How do you write? Fon, fono or phon?
Let’s say it straightaway: the most appropriate form to call the hairdryer in Italian is fon.
It is the Italian adjustment for the German term Föhn, which indicates a “hot wind“, but it is usually used in German as a synonym of hairdryer.
It all started at the beginning of the 20th century, when a company known as Sanitas began selling a hairdryer called Foen (a term that refers to the name of the wind, but without the H because it had to be copyrighted).
As a consequence of the spread of the device, in Italy people started using the adjusted form “fon” as a synonym of asciugacapelli (hairdryer).
However, besides the word “fon”, people also use the variation fono, but this word is usually used in informal contexts and it probably derives from regional uses.
Finally, the variation phon is considered completely wrong and, for this reason, should be avoided.
This is all! Did you know this word? How do you call it in your country or region? Let me know in the comments!
And do not forget to have a look at my video-lesson about the most TRICKY ITALIAN WORDS!
