Indian English at work: what global readers miss

To a developer, revert means undo: Git’s git revert records new commits that reverse earlier ones. Oxford’s learner’s dictionary also lists revert meaning reply, “especially Indian English, rather formal”, so “Please revert on the PR” can send one colleague to answer a question and another to undo a change.

This lesson is about audience, not correctness. Indian English is a varietyvariety (of a language): A form of a language used in one country or by one community, with its own words, spellings and grammar, such as Indian, British or American English. No variety is a mistake. of English with words of its own, and the only question is whether your reader shares them. You will learn forms that colleagues abroad often misread, such as revert, prepone and do the needful, an international alternative for each, and a check you can apply to the habits of any first language.

Indian English is a variety; the question is who reads it

Oxford’s learner’s dictionary labels words by where they are used, as it labels others British or American. Several forms that Indian offices use every day carry its Indian English label:

The label is not a mark of error. Inside an Indian team these forms are understood at once, and prepone says in one word what other varieties need two for, bring forward. The cost appears only when the reader is elsewhere: a client in Ohio may never have met prepone, and do the needful tells them that something is needed without saying what.

The program runs a rule pack of these forms on eight chat lines, each rule with its source, and checks the rewrites:

// A global-reader rule pack for forms that colleagues outside India may misread. Each rule names its source: the label
// that Oxford's learner's dictionary gives the form, or "abbreviation" for a short form a reader may not know. A flag
// is a question about the reader, not a verdict on the English: with colleagues who share these forms, they are fine.

const RULES = [
  [/\brevert(?:ing|ed|s)?\b(?! (?:the|this|that|my|your|it|commit|PR|change)\b)/i, 'revert (= reply)', 'Oxford: especially Indian English, rather formal', 'reply'],
  [/\bpreponed?\b|\bpreponing\b/i, 'prepone', 'Oxford: Indian English, informal', 'bring forward, move earlier'],
  [/\bdo the needful\b/i, 'do the needful', 'Oxford: especially Indian English', 'the exact action'],
  [/\bkindly adjust\b/i, 'kindly adjust', 'Oxford: Indian English, mainly in writing', 'say what changed and apologise'],
  [/\bintimate (?:you|me|him|her|them|us)\b/i, 'intimate somebody', 'Oxford: intimate something (to somebody); the adjective has a sexual sense', 'let you know'],
  [/\bdiscuss(?:ed|ing)? about\b/i, 'discuss about', 'Oxford: still considered incorrect by most people', 'discuss'],
  [/\brevert back\b/i, 'revert back', 'back repeats what revert says', 'reply'],
  [/\bPFA\b/, 'PFA', 'abbreviation', "I've attached"],
];

function flags(text) {
  return RULES.filter(([re]) => re.test(text)).map(([, form, source, plain]) => `${form} (${source}) -> ${plain}`);
}

const PAIRS = [
  ['Please revert on PR #412 by 6 PM IST.', 'Please reply on PR #412 by 6 PM IST (UTC+5:30).'],
  ['Can we prepone the demo to 3 PM?', 'Can we move the demo earlier, to 3 PM IST (UTC+5:30)?'],
  ['Kindly do the needful for the VPN access.', 'Could you approve my VPN access request?'],
  ['The build server is down today, kindly adjust.', 'The build server is down today. Sorry for the delay: builds will run again by 4 PM IST (UTC+5:30).'],
  ['I will intimate you once the patch is live.', 'I will let you know when the patch is live.'],
  ['Let us discuss about the schema on Monday.', "Let's discuss the schema on Monday."],
  ['PFA the logs and revert back with your comments.', "I've attached the logs. Could you reply with your comments?"],
  ['Please revert the change in PR #412: it broke the build.', 'Please revert the change in PR #412: it broke the build.'],
];

let before = 0;
let after = 0;
PAIRS.forEach(([original, fixed], i) => {
  const found = flags(original);
  before += found.length;
  after += flags(fixed).length;
  console.log(`${i + 1}  ${original}`);
  for (const f of found) console.log(`     ${f}`);
  console.log(fixed === original ? '   (revert means undo here: no flag)' : `   -> ${fixed}`);
});
console.log(`\nFlags: ${before} before, ${after} after`);

1  Please revert on PR #412 by 6 PM IST.
     revert (= reply) (Oxford: especially Indian English, rather formal) -> reply
   -> Please reply on PR #412 by 6 PM IST (UTC+5:30).
2  Can we prepone the demo to 3 PM?
     prepone (Oxford: Indian English, informal) -> bring forward, move earlier
   -> Can we move the demo earlier, to 3 PM IST (UTC+5:30)?
3  Kindly do the needful for the VPN access.
     do the needful (Oxford: especially Indian English) -> the exact action
   -> Could you approve my VPN access request?
4  The build server is down today, kindly adjust.
     kindly adjust (Oxford: Indian English, mainly in writing) -> say what changed and apologise
   -> The build server is down today. Sorry for the delay: builds will run again by 4 PM IST (UTC+5:30).
5  I will intimate you once the patch is live.
     intimate somebody (Oxford: intimate something (to somebody); the adjective has a sexual sense) -> let you know
   -> I will let you know when the patch is live.
6  Let us discuss about the schema on Monday.
     discuss about (Oxford: still considered incorrect by most people) -> discuss
   -> Let's discuss the schema on Monday.
7  PFA the logs and revert back with your comments.
     revert (= reply) (Oxford: especially Indian English, rather formal) -> reply
     revert back (back repeats what revert says) -> reply
     PFA (abbreviation) -> I've attached
   -> I've attached the logs. Could you reply with your comments?
8  Please revert the change in PR #412: it broke the build.
   (revert means undo here: no flag)

Flags: 9 before, 0 after

Seven of the eight lines had 9 flags between them, and the rewrites none. Line 8 shows that the pack is not a word filter: “Please revert the change in PR #412” uses revert in its Git sense, to undo, so it is not flagged.

Revert means undo to a developer

Outside software, revert usually means to go back to an earlier state. In a team of developers it also names a Git command. Git’s documentation describes git revert as taking existing commits, reverting the changes they introduced “and record some new commits that record them”. So the Indian English revert, meaning reply, collides with an instruction that changes the code. Step through one chat between Pune and Ohio:

The fix costs one word: write reply when you mean reply, and keep revert for undoing a change. “Could you reply to my questions on PR #412 by 6 PM IST (UTC+5:30)?” leaves one reading.

Three more groups of forms have parts of their own below. A full email from a team in Pune to a client in Ohio shows how these forms add up and how a rewrite keeps every fact. Intimate, doubt, discuss about and revert back are words whose second meaning or extra word surprises readers abroad. Forms of address such as Sir and Ma’am, and mixing languages in chat, depend on who reads, and the same check works for any first language.

A Pune email to a client in Ohio, checked and rewritten Pro: opens with a Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass

Words with a second meaning abroad: intimate, doubt and doubled forms Pro: opens with a Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass

Sir and Ma'am, mixed languages and your own first language Pro: opens with a Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass

Practise: rewrite an email for a reader abroad

The exercise holds a short email to a client in another country, with the forms of this lesson. Rewrite it until the sample tests pass:

// Rewrite the email for Mark, a client in Ohio. Keep the line breaks of the greeting and the signature, and every
// fact.
export const email =
  'Hi Mark,\n' +
  'As discussed about, we have preponed the go-live to Monday. Kindly do the needful and share the test report by ' +
  'EOD. PFA the deployment plan. I will intimate you once the cut-over starts. Please revert back with your ' +
  'comments.\n' +
  'Regards,\n' +
  'Neha';

import { test, assert } from 'mysmartcopilot:test';
import { email } from './email.mjs';

// The lesson's global-reader rule pack, with its rule for a time that has no zone.
const RULES = [
  [/\brevert(?:ing|ed|s)?\b(?! (?:the|this|that|my|your|it|commit|PR|change)\b)/i, 'revert: write reply'],
  [/\bpreponed?\b/i, 'prepone: write moved earlier'],
  [/\bdo the needful\b/i, 'do the needful: write the exact action'],
  [/\bintimate (?:you|me|him|her|them|us)\b/i, 'intimate you: write let you know'],
  [/\bdiscuss(?:ed|ing)? about\b/i, 'discussed about: write discussed or agreed'],
  [/\bPFA\b/, 'PFA: write I have attached'],
  [/\bEOD\b/, 'EOD: give a time and its zone'],
];
const ASK = /\?|\bplease\s+\w+/i;
const TIME_AND_ZONE = /\b\d{1,2}(?::\d{2})?\s?(?:AM|PM)?\s?(?:IST|UTC|GMT|BST|CET|Eastern Time|ET)\b|\bUTC[+-]\d/;
const body = () => email.split('\n').slice(1, -2).join(' ');

test('none of the rule pack forms remain', () => {
  for (const [re, why] of RULES) assert.ok(!re.test(email), `"${email.match(re)?.[0]}": ${why}`);
});

test('the ask for the test report stays an ask, with a time and its zone', () => {
  const sentence = body().split(/(?<=[.!?])\s+/).find((s) => s.includes('test report')) ?? '';
  assert.ok(sentence, 'the email no longer mentions the test report');
  assert.ok(ASK.test(sentence), 'ask for the test report: a question, or please and a verb');
  assert.ok(TIME_AND_ZONE.test(sentence), 'give a time with its zone for the test report');
});

test('every fact stays', () => {
  for (const fact of ['go-live', 'Monday', 'test report', 'deployment plan', 'cut-over', 'Neha']) {
    assert.ok(email.includes(fact), `the email no longer says "${fact}"`);
  }
});

test('no sentence is over 25 words', () => {
  for (const s of body().split(/(?<=[.!?])\s+/)) {
    const n = s.split(/\s+/).filter(Boolean).length;
    assert.ok(n <= 25, `${n} words: "${s}"`);
  }
});

Then try the questions on the variety and the revert trap. The session sends you first to the idea your answers so far have found hardest:

Interview questions

Warm-up (fresher to mid-level): What can “Please revert” mean, and why is it risky in a team of developers?

It can mean two things. Oxford’s learner’s dictionary lists revert meaning reply as especially Indian English and rather formal, so in many Indian offices “Please revert” means “please reply”. To developers everywhere, revert also names a Git command: git revert records new commits that undo earlier ones. A colleague abroad can read “Please revert on the PR” as an instruction to undo the change. Write reply when you mean reply, and keep revert for undoing a change.

Three longer questions about Indian English at work wait in this module’s bank:

Key takeaways

• Indian English is a variety with its own words; adapt them to your reader, not because they are wrong.
• Write the international word for a reader abroad: reply for revert, move earlier for prepone, the exact action for do the needful.
• Keep revert for undoing a change: in a team of developers, “Please revert on the PR” can undo a fix.