Please note that we will not be able to attend the online meeting on Thursday, October 21, as our office will be closed at 12 noon for a staff meeting

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
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Kindly note that we cannot join the online meeting, which is going to be held Thursday, 21st October because our office will close at noon due to a staff meeting.

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Please note that we will not be able to attend the online meeting on Thursday, October 21, as our office will be closed at 12 noon for a staff meeting.

Please don’t use ‘kindly’ when you want to say ‘please’.

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I have followed your link and read the thread. I still can’t distinguish the difference between ‘please’ and ‘kindly’. Do the sentences below have a different meaning? In my opinion both sentences refer to someone who is politely requesting that someone answers his
question.

Please answer my question.
Kindly answer my question.

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Well, can we agree that ‘kindly’ is the corresponding adverb to the adjective ‘kind’?

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Yes, of course

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With the second sentence, you ask another person to answer your question in a friendly way. So you’re not just asking the person to answer your question. You want them to do it in a friendly way.

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For me, kindly means in a polite way rather than in a friendly way. That’s why I have difficulty to distinguish the difference between the two words.

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Okay, let’s try it another way. Can you please describe what the following sentence means:

Person A says to person B: “Quickly close the door, please.”

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Person A is asking Person B to close the door in a polite way.

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David, the real reason is because it’s just not said that way in English. People would understand you, but it would also identify you as a non-native speaker.

Please and kindly are both adverbs in this context. They are both polite ways of making a request. But like I said, kindly is just not used that way in English.

Another variation is:

Would you mind … ?
This would not work in your original sentence, but it works with some requests.

Or ( much less common )
Would it be too much trouble… ?

Or ( also less common )
Could I trouble you to … ?

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Thanks Torsten and NearlyNapping for your help.

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There is a fundamental difference between “please” and “kindly”. Both could be classified as “adverbs,” but “please” has a clearly defined meaning and purpose. You use it to be polite. However, when you use “kindly,” you are asking the OTHER PERSON to be polite. It is as if you were saying to me: Please be polite to me! Please look at these examples:

Open the window, please.
Open the window!
Open the window quickly!
Open the window politely!
Open the window kindly!

The first sentence is the only one in which you make a polite request.

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Yes, these two words are interchangeably used widely in Asia, particularly in India where it seems to have come to stay!
I appreciate your effort, Torsten, to make it clear.

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