The word you're looking for is "der (Telefon)hörer". The literal translation is "the listener", but in context of telephones it was the word for the "bone". > Ich lege den Hörer auf. > I put down the receiver. > Ich nehme den Hörer ab. > I pick up the receiver/the phone. The sentence you're looking for would be > Ich gebe ihr/ihm den Hörer. You could still say that for wireless phones that have a base station somewhere, but it sounds a bit out of place for a cell phone. There, you would just pass on the "Handy".