呼び鈴

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 呼び鈴 is a noun read よびりん, meaning a service bell or doorbell used to call someone or announce a visitor.
• Basic usage: It can be pressed to call someone at reception or ring at an entrance and cause a dog to bark.
  • 受付に人がいなかったので呼び鈴を押した。 says that the service bell was pressed because no one was at reception; 玄関の呼び鈴が鳴り、犬が吠えた。 says that the dog barked when the doorbell rang.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• 呼び鈴を押す
  • を marks the service bell as what was pressed to call someone.
• 呼び鈴が鳴る
  • が marks the doorbell as what rang at the entrance.
• 呼び鈴 and ベル
  • 呼び鈴 is specifically a bell for summoning someone or announcing a visitor, while ベル broadly denotes a bell.