Help!

How do you say "can I leave her a message" in Swiss-German? According to Linguee.com the German is "eine Nachricht hinterlassen" but that doesn't sound right.

I need to phone an HR person shortly as she would like to ask me a couple of questions about my job application and I'd like to leave her a message if she's not available (I tried calling her yesterday but she was in a meeting and I could only remember how to say I'll try again tomorrow but I can't keep doing that, can I?)

Why Swiss-German? Just leave the message in High German. The translation you found should be fine.

Because I know some Swiss-German, so I'd feel silly if I was chatting away in S-G and then suddenly changed to High German mid-sentence.

I do it all the time. I think people just appreciate you making an effort in the first place. Actually, I would avoid using Swiss German altogther unless you're extremely comfortable with it, as they'll assume you understand everything and will blather along at high speed (except in Bern).

very similar to High German. Maybe someone has a better translation not as literal as mine..

- Chan ich ihre e Nachricht hinderlah ("East CH")
- Chan ig ihre e Nachricht hingerlah (Bern)
(obviously it varies slightly from region to region)

But I think what PaddyG said, to say it in High German should be perfectly fine.

As advised just write it in high German. Many Swiss don't like when people write in dialect, they prefer it in high German (even messages from other Swiss).

Absolutely, if the OP is about writing a note This should be done in High German.

I'm pretty certain the OP is referring to leaving a phone message. Seeing she is in NZ at the moment

Yip, that's right.

As it turns out, it wasn't an issue. The receptionist asked if I wanted to leave a message, and the HR woman phoned me back straight away.

She seemed lovely, and her english was excellent, aaaannnnnd .... hopefully I'll have a job interview via skype next week! I'm very excited! I think I'll go back to bed now though because it's ridiculously early for a Saturday.

Thank you so much for your advice

Congrats. Good luck with it.

When you have these translation issues, think of another way to say it. For example, I can't offhand think of how to say "can I leave a message". But I do know how to say "please could you give her a message".

This has turned out to be the best advice ever!

I had my first interview the other day (via skype), and I used this technique whenever I got stuck (interspersed with the odd high-german bit, and a lot of english when I was completely at a loss).

I'm hoping that they liked me enough to request another interview next week.

Requests for translations can go in this Thread.