“Please revert to my email…” “I will revert to you soon…”
Hm, I wonder when Singaporeans started using this word “revert” thinking it is more profound and more high class than “reply”?
Sigh, even lawyers make this mistake.
Definition of “revert”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/revert
1 : to come or go back (as to a former condition, period, or subject)
2 : to return to the proprietor or his or her heirs at the end of a reversion
3 : to return to an ancestral type
http://www.answers.com/topic/revert
1 : To come back to a former condition: recrudesce, recur, reoccur, return. See repetition.
2 : To slip from a higher or better condition to a former, usually lower or poorer one: backslide, lapse, regress, relapse, retrogress. See better/worse, repetition.
Technically, nothing is required if you ask someone ”to revert to your email”, as “revert” means “to return to the original state”. If your reader replies to your message, tells you or suggests something, something has changed –> there is no way you can get back to the original state.
Definition of “reply”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reply
intransitive verb
1 a : to respond in words or writing b : echo, resound c : to make a legal replication
2 : to do something in response; specifically : to return gunfire or an attack
transitive verb : to give as an answer
We are living in a modern world, modern English works better than clichés. Trying to be “high class” can back fire sometimes.
There is a Chinese saying “厉害就好，不要假厉害！” Don’t try to be smart.
Related topic: Kindly ≠ Please
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