Do the Needful, Prepone, Revert: 40 Indian English Words at Work

You’re on a standup with your Bangalore team and someone says, “I’ll revert by EOD, kindly do the needful in the meantime.” You nod along, but a quiet part of your brain is going: revert to what? Do which needful? If that’s you, you’re in the right place. This is a practical glossary of the most common Indian English words and phrases you’ll hear at work, including the famous do the needful meaning and prepone meaning that trip up almost every American the first time.

Here’s the thing to get straight up front: Indian English is not “broken” English. It’s a full, legitimate variety of the language with more than 250 million speakers, its own grammar conventions, its own vocabulary, and a long literary tradition. The words below aren’t mistakes — they’re how a huge slice of the English-speaking world actually communicates. Your goal (and ours) isn’t to “correct” anyone. It’s mutual understanding, so that nothing important gets lost on a call. Let’s build your Indian English vocabulary.

Scheduling and time

This is the category that causes the most real-world confusion, because these words show up in meeting invites and deadlines — exactly where misunderstanding costs you.

Term	Meaning	Example you’d hear on a call
Prepone	Move earlier (the logical opposite of postpone)	“Can we prepone the demo to Tuesday? The client is free then.”
Postpone	Move later (same as US usage, just very common)	“Let’s postpone the retro to next week.”
Revert	Reply / get back to you (NOT “undo changes”)	“I’ll check with the lead and revert by tomorrow.”
Do the needful	Please do whatever is necessary	”I’ve raised the ticket — kindly do the needful.”
Out of station	Out of town / traveling	”He’s out of station this week, so I’ll cover the deploy.”
EOD / SOD	End of day / start of day	”I’ll share the report by EOD.”
Preponed it	Already moved it earlier	”I preponed the sync since Friday’s a holiday.”

The big one is prepone. English has “postpone” but historically had no single word for the reverse, so Indian English coined a beautifully logical one. When someone says “let’s prepone,” they mean move the meeting to an earlier time. Once you know it, you’ll wish American English had it too.

Revert is the second classic. In US tech, “revert” means roll back a code change. In Indian English, revert = reply / get back to you. “I’ll revert” means “I’ll respond,” not “I’ll undo something.” Context usually makes it obvious, but on a call about a pull request, it’s worth a beat of attention.

And do the needful — probably the single most asked-about phrase. The do the needful meaning is simply: please do whatever needs to be done. It’s polite, slightly formal, and extremely common in email. It is not vague or passive-aggressive; it’s a courteous way of handing off an action item.

Email and politeness

Indian English business writing tends to be more formal and courteous than the clipped American style. None of this is wrong — it’s a different register of politeness. Read it as warmth, not stiffness.

• Kindly — A polite “please.” “Kindly find the attached document.” Extremely standard in professional email.
• Please intimate — Please inform / let me know. “Please intimate us once the build is ready.” (More on “intimate” below — it’s a verb here.)
• The same — “It” / “that thing” referring back to something just mentioned. “I’ve received the invoice and will process the same.”
• Revert back — Reply (yes, technically redundant, but very common). “Please revert back at the earliest.”
• At the earliest — As soon as possible. “Share the figures at the earliest.”
• Please do the needful — The full polite formula. “Attached is the form — please do the needful.”
• Good name — Your name (from a Hindi politeness pattern). “May I know your good name?” simply means “What’s your name?”
• Updation — The act of updating. “Updation of the records is pending.”

If you only remember one thing from this section: when an Indian colleague writes “kindly do the needful and revert back at the earliest,” they are being polite and efficient, not bossy. Translated to American office English, it’s just “please handle this and let me know — thanks.”

Status and work

These show up constantly in standups, tickets, and status updates. For a deeper dive into the meeting context specifically, see Indian English at daily standups.

• Doubt — A question, not suspicion or distrust. This is the single most important one to internalize. “I have a doubt about the API spec” means “I have a question about the API spec.” If a junior engineer says “I have some doubts,” they are asking for clarification — they are not skeptical of your design.
• Intimate (verb) — To inform / notify. “Please intimate me once it’s deployed.” Pronounced like the adjective, but it means “let know.”
• Regularize — To make official / formalize / bring into compliance. “We need to regularize this temporary fix.” Also used for HR (“regularize his attendance”).
• Needful — The necessary thing/action (as in “do the needful”). “I’ll complete the needful by lunch.”
• Updation — Updating, as a noun. “Updation of the dashboard is in progress.”
• Raise (a ticket / a concern) — Open or file. “I’ll raise a ticket for the bug.” Common in US English too, but very heavily used.
• Do one thing — “Here’s a suggestion” / “Let’s do this.” “Do one thing — restart the service and check the logs.” It’s a friendly lead-in to advice, not a literal count.
• Same to same — Identical. “The two designs are same to same.”
• Reduce / increase the AC — Turn it down/up. Not work, but you’ll hear it in the office.

The doubt = question equivalence deserves a star next to it. American managers sometimes misread “I have a doubt” as the engineer doubting them or the plan. In nearly every case it just means “I have a question.” Treat every “doubt” as an invitation to clarify, and your async communication will get noticeably smoother.

School and life

These come up in casual chat, intros, and “tell me about yourself” moments. Knowing them helps you connect, not just transact.

• Passed out — Graduated. “I passed out of IIT in 2018” means “I graduated from IIT in 2018.” It has nothing to do with fainting. This one genuinely surprises people, so file it away.
• Batchmate — Someone who graduated in the same year/cohort. “He was my batchmate at college.”
• Cousin-brother / cousin-sister — A male/female cousin. Reflects the cultural closeness of extended family. “My cousin-brother also works in tech.”
• By-two — Split between two people (originally a coffee order). “Let’s do a by-two on this coffee.”
• Real brother / own brother — A biological sibling (to distinguish from cousin-brother). “No, my own brother, not cousin.”
• Pass out vs fail — In exams, “pass out” = complete/graduate.
• Tuition — Private tutoring, not college fees. “I took tuition for math.”
• Hostel — A dormitory at a school/college, not a budget hotel. “I stayed in the hostel during engineering.”

Passed out is the one that catches everyone. When a new colleague says they “passed out in 2020,” picture a graduation cap, not an ambulance.

Quantity and emphasis

Numbers and intensifiers work a little differently — and the number words are genuinely useful to know when budgets and user counts come up.

• Lakh — 100,000 (one hundred thousand). Written 1,00,000 in the Indian numbering system. “The campaign reached five lakh users” = 500,000 users.
• Crore — 10,000,000 (ten million). “The funding round was 50 crore rupees.” (50 crore = 500 million.)
• Only — An emphasis marker placed after the point. “I’m telling you this only.” / “It happened yesterday only” = “it happened just yesterday.” It pins down or emphasizes, rather than restricting.
• Itself — Similar emphasis, often “right then/there.” “I’ll finish it today itself” = “I’ll finish it this very day.”
• Itself / only combined — “Send it now itself only” = “send it right now.” Layered emphasis is normal.

Quick math reference: lakh = 100,000 and crore = 10,000,000. So “1.5 crore” is 15 million, and “two lakh” is 200,000. If someone quotes a number in lakhs or crores in a meeting, convert in your head and the numbers will suddenly make sense.

Discourse markers

These little words carry tone and rhythm. You don’t need to use them, but recognizing them tells you a lot about how a conversation is going.

• Yaar — “Buddy / dude / man.” Warm, informal. “Come on, yaar, just ship it.” A sign of friendliness.
• Achha — “Okay / I see / really?” A flexible acknowledgment. “Achha, so the bug was in the cache?”
• Na — A tag seeking agreement, like “right?” or “isn’t it?” “You’ll join the call, na?”
• Arre — An exclamation: “Oh!”, “Hey!”, “Come on!” “Arre, I completely forgot the meeting.”
• Bas — “That’s it / enough / done.” “Bas, that’s all we need for the MVP.”
• Ji — A respectful suffix or standalone “yes.” “Sir-ji” or just “Ji, I’ll do it.” Adds politeness.
• Theek hai — “Okay / fine / all good.” “Theek hai, let’s go with plan B.”

When you hear “yaar” or “achha” sprinkled into a call, that’s usually a good sign — the conversation has relaxed into something friendly. If you want to drill any of these in realistic workplace dialogue rather than just reading definitions, SpiceTalk is built for exactly that: it puts these words back into the kind of standups, code reviews, and Slack threads where you actually meet them, so recognition becomes instant instead of effortful.

Quick reference cheat sheet

Bookmark this table — it’s the 90% you’ll hear most often.

Word / phrase	What it means	Heard as
Do the needful	Please do what’s necessary	”Kindly do the needful.”
Prepone	Move earlier	”Let’s prepone to Monday.”
Revert	Reply / get back to you	”I’ll revert by EOD.”
Doubt	A question	”I have a doubt about the spec.”
Intimate (verb)	Inform / notify	”Please intimate me.”
Kindly	Please	”Kindly check the file.”
Passed out	Graduated	”I passed out in 2019.”
Out of station	Out of town	”She’s out of station.”
Updation	Updating	”Updation is pending.”
Regularize	Make official / formalize	”Let’s regularize the fix.”
The same	It / that thing	”I’ll process the same.”
At the earliest	ASAP	”Revert at the earliest.”
Lakh	100,000	”Five lakh users.”
Crore	10,000,000	”50 crore rupees.”
Only / itself	Emphasis (“just,” “right now”)	“Today itself only.”
Do one thing	”Here’s a suggestion"	"Do one thing — restart it.”
Good name	Your name	”Your good name, please?”
Yaar	Buddy / dude	”Ship it, yaar.”
Achha	Okay / I see	”Achha, got it.”
Na	”right?” tag	”You’ll join, na?”

Putting it together

None of these words are obstacles once you know them — they’re just a dialect you haven’t fully tuned your ear to yet. The fastest path to fluency in Indian English vocabulary is exposure: hear “prepone,” “revert,” and “do the needful” enough times in real context and your brain stops translating and just understands.

A few closing tips for smoother collaboration:

• When you hear “doubt,” read it as “question” and respond with clarification, not defensiveness.
• When you hear “revert,” check whether the topic is code (rollback) or conversation (reply) — almost always it’s “reply.”
• When you read “kindly do the needful,” translate it to “please handle this, thanks” and move on — it’s courtesy, not curtness.
• Don’t “correct” your colleagues’ English. Indian English is correct English. Meeting them where they are builds far more trust than playing grammar police.

For the bigger picture on accent, grammar, and culture beyond vocabulary, read The complete guide to Indian English, and if you manage or collaborate across time zones, Working with offshore teams in India covers the workflow side. Master these 40 words first, though, and your next standup will feel a whole lot clearer. Theek hai?