Is the standard of spoken English declining?

WHY do so many TV presenters pronounce 2021 as twenny twenny-one (Letters)? Perhaps they went to the same universi-ee as Angela Rayner, shadow education secretary, before she joined the Labour pard-ee!

D. R. KIMBERLEY, Northampton.

WHEN it comes to TV presenters’ pronunciation, I have two bugbears: the word ‘been’ garbled as ‘bin’; and mixing up when to use ‘less’ or ‘fewer’.

ANDY COOKE, Lowestoft, Suffolk.

WHY do people moan about pronunciation and slight errors in the English language? Do they still speak as ye olde folke of the Middle Ages? Language evolves.

T. KEOGH, Hunstanton, Norfolk.

THE phrase that annoys me is ‘two times’. If something occurs on two occasions, it’s twice. Why has this inoffensive little word been taken out of our language?

JACKIE WELLAND, Ottery St Mary, Devon.

WHY can’t so many presenters say February? Mostly we get ‘Febury’. What happened to elocution training for broadcasters?

MICHAEL ROBINS, Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos.

IS ‘ABSOLUTELY’ the most overused, abused word in the English language? How would TV and radio presenters cope without it? Most would absolutely struggle!

DAVID HERBERT, Neath, West Glamorgan.

TOO many radio and TV presenters and pundits omit the letter ‘t’ from words, such as authority and committee. And as for those who say haitch instead of aitch . . . CHRISTOPHER MAYER, New Malden, Surrey.

THANKS to Bake Off Queen Mary Berry, it took me ages before I realised there were no ‘lairs’ in my Victoria sandwich!

G. GATEHOUSE, Wokingham, Berks.

WHY not use the straightforward word plan instead of pretentious roadmap (Letters)? How about include instead of factor in, or the present instead of here and now.

R. J. WARE, Gillingham, Dorset.

WHY do so many presenters say I am sat or I am stood? What happened to sitting and standing? ELAINE DASKE, Somerset.