Learn English – To hold a child in the hands

phrase-requestsentence-request

I have two related questions concerning holding a child in the hands.

  1. What is the right phrase a child usually says to his parent when when he wants to be held in their hands? In Russian it is "Хочу на ручки" but I couldn't find the right translation for this phrase.
  2. What is the correct expression for holding a child in the hands? I doubt that "hold in the hands" is the right one.

Best Answer

I'll expand on my comment on the original question with a few other points to try to make this into a full-fledged answer.

There are two possibilities, depending on what you're trying to mean with "hold in the hands":

  1. "To hold a child by the hand," or "to hold hands with a child." That means that the child's hand and your hand are intertwined, as in this picture. If a child wanted this, they could use the imperative, "Hold my hand." It's grammatical to say, "hold me by the hand," but that's a bit complex to hear from a child - it sounds more like an adult romantic partner trying to be poetic.

  2. "To hold a child in your arms" or "to carry a child." That means that you are carrying a child in your arms, as in this picture. Note that you say "arms" here, not "hands" because English doesn't let you use "hands" if any part of your arm above your wrist is involved (that goes to my рука comment above). Also, you use the possessive your/my/one's to clarify that you're not talking about the child's arms/hands. If a child wanted to be carried, then both of @JeezLouise suggestions are good. You also hear "Mommy, pick me up!" or even just "Up!" from very small children.

Finally, there's a funny English word piggyback that refers to carrying a child (or anyone else) on your back, as in this picture.

Editing to add:

It is common in English to say that "I am holding something in my hands," but only if that thing is small enough to be completely supported inside my two hands (not arms!). You can hold a small rabbit in your hands like this. It's the existence of this expression that possibly confused both me and JeezLouise into thinking that you were talking about picking the child up off the ground, plus the fact that I'm married to a Bulgarian, so I'm used to the Slavic language confusion between hands and arms.

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