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> As per my last email Isn't this just the "As I've written in my last letter" for the e-mail era? Maybe it's just a cultural difference. (In my native languag

by pas 7y ago

> As per my last email Isn't this just the "As I've written in my last letter" for the e-mail era? Maybe it's just a cultural difference. (In my native language - and probably because of that in English too - I try use the verbs corresponding to the medium, so if I wrote to someone then I'll refer to that communication as "as you probably read" instead of "heard", and so on.)

passer_byer 7y ago
>As per my last email As a native English speaker, if I encounter this phrase I take it to suggest I am not paying attention.
- objectivetruth 7y ago
  Exactly. You can always replace "As per my last email," with "As you should have read and noted in my last email..." but the first one comes off a lot less passive-aggressive. It's a polite nicety - a gentle reminder. I agree it sounds a little formal so I usually try to use "As I noted earlier," or "If you'll remember," instead.
skytreader 7y ago
> Isn't this just the "As I've written in my last letter" for the e-mail era? It might as well be. It just always struck me as wrong usage, for lack of better term. "Per", to me, is always in the sense of "for each": per month, per head, etc. That said, I decided to look it up. And quoting from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/as%20per https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/as%20per: > Is It Grammatically Correct to Say _as per_? > ...The more ponderous as per is often found in business and legal prose, or in writing that attempts to adopt a formal tone. It is not incorrect to use, but some find it overly legalistic and counsel avoiding it for that reason. On the other hand, it has been used to good effect in facetious mock-business-English ("as per the President’s shiny new Environmental Policy Act"). ... Looks like I'm not the only one who was puzzled by this turn of phrase. You learn new things everyday. :) (edit: formatting)
- pas 7y ago
  I thought it comes from some tortured Latin (see "per se", and per also meaning "by means of"). And the "as" shouldn't even be there.

by pas 7y ago

passer_byer 7y ago

>As per my last email As a native English speaker, if I encounter this phrase I take it to suggest I am not paying attention.

objectivetruth 7y ago
Exactly. You can always replace "As per my last email," with "As you should have read and noted in my last email..." but the first one comes off a lot less passive-aggressive. It's a polite nicety - a gentle reminder. I agree it sounds a little formal so I usually try to use "As I noted earlier," or "If you'll remember," instead.

skytreader 7y ago

> Isn't this just the "As I've written in my last letter" for the e-mail era? It might as well be. It just always struck me as wrong usage, for lack of better term. "Per", to me, is always in the sense of "for each": per month, per head, etc. That said, I decided to look it up. And quoting from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/as%20per https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/as%20per: > Is It Grammatically Correct to Say _as per_? > ...The more ponderous as per is often found in business and legal prose, or in writing that attempts to adopt a formal tone. It is not incorrect to use, but some find it overly legalistic and counsel avoiding it for that reason. On the other hand, it has been used to good effect in facetious mock-business-English ("as per the President’s shiny new Environmental Policy Act"). ... Looks like I'm not the only one who was puzzled by this turn of phrase. You learn new things everyday. :) (edit: formatting)

pas 7y ago
I thought it comes from some tortured Latin (see "per se", and per also meaning "by means of"). And the "as" shouldn't even be there.