Why do you want to "Revert" if you have to "Reply"?
(A short note on "Use of Revert Vs Reply in emails")
"Can you please check and revert on the same?"
"Kindly revert incase of any queries."
"If any discrepancy is noted, revert to us by reply e-mail"
"Feel free to revert."
"Do revert in case of any issue."
"Please revert back to me in case if you have any query or need more clarifications."
Please have a look at above sentences. Quite possibly the most abused word in the electronic mail landscape, “revert” can usually be found at least once in your emails for the day. If you have gotten an email with this phrase “Please revert as soon as possible”, feel free to charge the sender with culpable homicide not amounting to murder of the English language. A correct and friendlier sentence that you can use to replace “Please revert as soon as possible” is “I look forward to hearing from you soon.” Revert does not mean “reply”; it actually means “to return to a previous state”.
The sentences below demonstrates the correct use of "revert"
"Can the form be reverted so that I can modify and save"
"Please revert it to Accepted stage."
The below comment says it all..
"I am from India.. and here , the word "revert" is used interchangeably with "reply". Like you say.. your indian colleague means that wants a status update. I have experienced a similar situation when a european colleague misunderstands the statement : " we shall revert with the status" as.. "undoing a change made previously" and there was a lot of confusion because of that... I guess we just have to be careful using our words depending on our audience...On the other hand.. " reply" should be the correct word to use"
So going forward let us get back or reply with more details and please don't "revert back"
Resourceful and IT savvy Administrative and Customer Service Professional
1 个月Yes, I totally agree with this, as I remembered I got an earful from my American superior before when I used revert instead of reply. Since then I've been trying to educate others that used the word to not use it anymore to avoid confusion.
Chief Information Officer at Elevate
9 个月Thanks for the thoughts. Couldn't agree more.
Rudolf Wassmer Hoch- & Tiefbau GmbH
11 个月Thank you! This ever increasing, incorrect use of ?revert‘ in emails is driving me crazy.
Director and Technical Consultant at Independent Assay Laboratories
1 年Thanks for posting this Pushkar, but good luck with getting the people who use it incorrectly to change. I actually pointed it out to a colleague some years ago and just got sarcasm as a response. It is endemic in the mineral concentrate world - everyone (almost without exception) will "revert" instead of replying. Curiously, looking up the meaning shows it as meaning reply in Indian English (on one site), so people may use that as an out. However, in my English studies we were told to use whatever language we preferred, but be consistent i.e. use UK English, or American English, etc. I suspect that most people who revert do not use Indian English (I didn't know there was such a thing, but we live and learn) as their language of choice.
Head of Operations at Fusion Intelligence Technologies
2 年This was quite helpful. Thank you Pushkar!