Word Usage – ‘Reply About’ or ‘Reply To’ Correct Usage

There is a difference between the two.

I'll email you the date

means that I will have or know the day and time of some event or observation, and I will share it by email with someone. (Here, date is the direct object of email, and you is the indirect object.)

I'll email about the date

means that I will email for some purpose relating to the date; there is no explicit object. Perhaps the purpose is to tell you what it is, as in the first case, but perhaps it is to initiate a conversation about it.

Thus, while the second can often substitute for the first, the reverse is not true. If I am inviting you to one of two baseball games playing next Wednesday or Thursday, and you are not sure when you are available, for me to say I'll email about the date is to say that we will need to continue the conversation over email once you have more information. To say I'll email the date is to say am no longer giving you the option to choose which day's game you will attend.

1. "a reply of sorts" means that although it could be classified (sorted) as a reply, it would have been an inferior one. Kind could not be substituted.

2. It is a more formal writing style, yes.

3. It means that although they did see the countryside, it wasn't in the same way that someone "touring the countryside and visiting picturesque sites. . ." would have. So in a (the literal) sense they did see the countryside, but in the (generally accepted) sense, they did not.

4. "having been placed" would be a possible substitute.