“At the tone, please leave your name and a detailed message.”

English Lesson: At the tone, please leave your name and a detailed message.

You call your dentist's office on a Saturday, but they're closed. You listen to this voicemail greeting before you leave a message.

At the tone, please leave your name and a detailed message.

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leave a message

You can "leave a message" on voice mail.

Please leave a message after the beep.

You can also leave a message with the person who answers the phone, if they're not the correct person that you want to speak to. If you call your sister's home phone, for example, and her son answers, you can "leave a message" with him. Later, he will give the message to your sister.

at the tone

A "tone" is a kind of sound. It has an even pitch, meaning that it doesn't go up and down like the melody of a song, but stays the same. One way that you can use the word "tone" is to talk about the sound that plays on a telephone voice mail system or some other recording system.

Just state your name after the tone.

leave your name

To "leave your name" means to tell someone your name so that it can be passed on to someone else. For example, if you call to speak with someone but a different person answers, they might suggest this:

He's not here right now, but if you want to leave your name, I'll let him know that you called.

You can also "leave your name" on a recording or in a form on a website.