No love, actually, for this grammatical idiocy

I HAVE tried very hard not to enter the current debate on your letters pages re English language and its grammar usage.

I own up to not always understanding, therefore not speaking, correct usage of words so who am I to chastise those 
who obviously are in the same boat.

But this gives me the perfect platform to tell you my pet hate. It is the word “actually”. In my opinion, a stupid word 
which rarely needs to be 
used but is expressed excessively, which drives me potty.

Speakers at conferences, television stars and announcers, everybody does it.

They all believe their information should be peppered with the dreaded word.

I am actually quite sick of the fact that they actually need to use it to actually make me understand what they are actually getting at. I lose the content 
of their conversation in 
counting how many times it is used.

Cue, come off soapbox.

From: C F Beck, Lindrick Grove, Tickhill.

I AGREE with Elisabeth Baker (Yorkshire Post, December 5) who deplores the omission of the conjunction “that” in written and spoken English and urges its re-introduction in the interests of clear communication. I 
have struggled for many 
years studying Romance languages (in my 
case French, Spanish and Catalan) – by my own choice
I hasten to say – in which 
to use the equivalent of 
“that”, ie “que”, is absolutely obligatory and I always use 
“that” where appropriate 
when writing English. Nevertheless, I do feel “that” 
I am swimming against the 
tide.