"Sorry I thought you were a tape".

[martinemussies]

Hi everybody !!

YEAH - I'm back on-line and missed you all a lot (esp. Lev! hihi)
Anyway, guess what happened Thursday. Really, something this stupid
does only happen when you're Martine . OK, I wanted to call someone
who knows Russian very well and talk to him to practise a bit. Someone
answeres the phono in a very monotone voice, so I thought it was a
tape and hung up. Wrong. It was the person I wanted to talk to!
*shame shame*

So, now I'd like to send him an e-card with a Russian text... something
like "Sorry I thought you were a tape". How does one explain this?
My try:

Огорченно для висеть вверх по телефону, я честно думала что вы
были автоматической лентой!

All suggestions are welcome! Love, Martine.

 

[Lev Yakupov]

Hi, Martine, glad to see you here again!

Well... a funny situation

And first part of the suggested answer of you, which is pretty complicated.

Many english verbs consist of two parts (verb + preposition), but very-very often translated to russian as a one word, which has: stem - as a translation of the verb; and special prefix to fit the meaning of the preposition. For example:
to hang - висеть
to hang up - повесить
to hang out - вывесить
Endings changed because they have different infinitives, and in case of that different conjunctions.

Thus, we got:

К сожелению (unfortunately), я повесила трубку (I hang up a phone) ...

Also, note, that I used a по prefix, which usually mean a instantaneity of some asction.

But you second part:

я честно думала что вы
были автоматической лентой!

Is perfect! Only minor corrections here: we call tape - автоматическим ответчиком or more short variant автоответчиком. And again по prefix here more convenient

So, finally construct next sentense:
К сожелению (unfortunately), я повесила трубку (I hang up a phone), потому что подумала (because I thought), что вы были - автоответчиком (that you are were a tape).

Grey words can be cutted off as you will, while the meaning remains.

I hope you explain yourself to him and finally get your practice

 

[martinemussies]

Hi Lev !!
Thank you sooooo much for your help, - again!
Did you receive my e-mail with the "thank-you-bear" ??
Hope so, love, Martine. xx

 

[MindStorm]

Вы были автоответчиком sounds quite weird. Actually, it sounds like you are talking about man's profession. As you didn't know that was a human (=)), you should write like "i thought it was an answering machine", and in russian, where we dont change tenses in such cases, it would sound like потому что я подумала, что это [был] автоответчик