Please advise meaning: tell me what to do

A decision, or the facts

Please advise asks the reader for a decision, for information, or both. The verb advise means to recommend, or to inform. It came into English in the 14th century, from Anglo-French aviser, built on avis, “opinion”.

Is please advise correct English

Please advise is correct English. It’s formal and a little old-fashioned, so it sounds like a letter even in a chat window. The related phrase “please be advised” asks for nothing. It means you are hereby told.

Sent more often than circle back

Please advise turns up in 1,459 out of a million work emails from January 2024 to October 2025. That’s nearly three times as many as circle back.

Where the impatience comes from

Please advise usually comes from someone who’s fed up that a thing still isn’t settled. They hand the problem over in a stiff tone and suggest no answer. If that’s you, our guide to how to professionally say blunt thoughts gives each one a polite version.

The please advise ping-pong

Procurement and the project lead can trade please advise back and forth for a week. Each one writes that the other owns the supplier choice, then adds please advise. Then the supplier withdraws the quote, and the decision has made itself.

Say what you need

Instead of please advise, open with the question you mean and the day you need the answer by. Putting the ask first is called BLUF, short for bottom line up front.

• “Can you approve the $1,200 quote by Thursday?”
• “Which of these two dates works for you?”
• “If I don’t hear by Friday, I’ll go with option B.”

When please advise still works

Please advise still works in a formal email to a supplier, a bank or a client’s legal team. To a colleague two desks away, it reads as a summons. Pls advise is the same summons, with the word please cut down to three letters.

The please advise reply

When an email ends in please advise, answer the question it should have asked. Pick an option with a date, and say what happens next. If it never names the options, reply with the two you can see and ask which one they meant.

Please advise in the dictionary

Two more entries in our jargon dictionary are as formal as please advise. Revert can mean reply in Indian English, so “please revert” asks for an answer too. As per means according to, and usually points back at a policy or an earlier email. All three sound like they were written for a filing cabinet and sent to a person.

An email that ends in please advise

Subject: RE: Shipment 2207 held at customs

Hi Marta, the broker says the invoice lists 40 units and the crate holds 48. They need either a corrected invoice or a return label for the extra 8 by Wednesday. Please advise Tell me which one you want.