Is English becoming too Americanised?

I AGREE grotesque Americanisms are creeping into our English usage (Letters). Americans never use one word where several will do. I dislike the phrase ‘X-year anniversary’. What a dog’s breakfast! The ordinals first, second, third etc are quite sufficient to clarify how many years have passed since the event. An anniversary occurs annually so the word year is superfluous. Don’t dumb down our language!

TONY CATER, Grays, Essex. I hate ‘thinking outside the box’ and ‘stepping up to the plate’.

B. McDEVITT, Birkenhead, Wirral.

YES, poor standards of English are irritating. We do things ‘at’ not ‘on’ the weekend.

MIKE KIMBERLEY, Kenley, Surrey. We Once had power cuts, now it’s power outages; we got something, now we have gotten it; and we guessed what people were thinking, now we have to second guess. Welcome to the 51st state!

CARL ELLIOTT, Croydon, Surrey.

WHAT happened to the present participle: stood and sat instead of the correct standing and sitting.

S. FINDLAY, Newcastle upon Tyne. ISN’t two out of three two-thirds; nine out of ten 90 per cent; aeroplane not airplane; unique not very unique; and let’s sort out when to use ‘a’ or ‘an’. Wassup chaps?

IAN GREEN, Malvern, Worcs. I GREW up as an ardent enthusiast for H. W. Fowler’s The King’s English (1906 edition), but realised it is effective communication that matters far more than the mechanical details of delivery. I rejoice that the internet has inflicted one dominant language, warts and all, on the world. Why split hairs over split infinitives?