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Simply select from our online catalog and we are confirming your order within 24 hours.

Is this sentence wrong? I would get that as "We are monitoring your orders", but it seems that I can't use "confirm" for that meaning.

Am I right?

KeepCoding
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  • To confirm an order means that the vendor begins the processes connected with the sale and lets the purchaser know that everything is progressing according to plan. To monitor an order means that the vendor is keeping a particularly close eye on the steps required to fulfil it. – Erik Kowal Jul 19 '14 at 04:07

3 Answers3

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One issue is we are is present tense and within 24 hours requires future tense. So,

Simply select from our online catalog and we will confirm your order within 24 hours.

Another issue is the choice of select or order; you don't need both,

Simply order from our online catalog and we will confirm within 24 hours.

Elliott Frisch
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  • "Simply order from our online catalog and we will confirm within 24 hours" is passable, but not ideal, because 'confirm' usually takes an object; I therefore think your first suggestion is better. Or perhaps something along the lines of "Simply make your selection from our online catalog and we will confirm your order within 24 hours" -- same idea, but with more nouns. – Erik Kowal Jul 19 '14 at 04:02
  • @ErikKowal Your second example is good, I think my objection is primarily that filling a basket does not an order make. – Elliott Frisch Jul 19 '14 at 04:12
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In Standard English, we are confirming is the present continuous and indicates an possibly lengthy activity which is occurring now. Your "we are monitoring" is a good example of this; the monitoring can continue over a period, and you have caught a particular instant in time.

It's possible that "we are confirming your order" could fall into that usage, if the work to confirm an order might take some time and you have phoned the company to ask what is going on. In that case, that lengthy operation is identified as happening at that moment.

Once you push the confirmation into the future with "within 24 hours", the present continuous is no longer valid. It would be possible to say "we will be confirming your order within the next 24 hours," but again that indicates a fairly lengthy process which will take time to carry out. It's unlikely that any confirmation should be drawn-out: it's more likely to be an almost instantaneous "Thanks; got that."

Thus a simple future-tense "We will confirm" is more appropriate.

There may be dialects of English where the use of the present continuous is more widespread (my experiences of Indian English tend to point to this usage there) and in those dialects it may be quite valid and understood.

Andrew Leach
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Simply select from our online catalog and the confirmation of your order by us will occur within 24 hours.

I think this is best.

aaa90210
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