YOUR Mystery Columnist draws our attention to some of the more extreme reaches of everyday language that may cause dismay or irritation, Guardian July 8.

I would also draw attention to changes in language that are found tucked away in carefully written or spoken journalism that I feel no-one voted for. Who decided that 'alternative' was just too long and should be shortened to 'alternate' which means something quite different?

When was 'heading' as in 'heading in to town' thought to be too purposeful and should become the rather passive 'headed'.

Sad is the loss of the harmless little word 'with' after 'fed up' to be replaced by 'of' or lost altogether after 'battled'.

I wonder if the use of 'awesome' to describe a meal order is the same kind of adjectival inflation that replaced 'surprised' with 'shocked'.

However, to be fair, there are changes that one can tolerate, such as 'new build' and widening the transitive use of 'grow' from plants to businesses even if they do stick in my throat.

Patrick Jones Knutsford