A Nerdy Moment

All nerds need a moment to appreciate their hobby every now and then, here is mine:

Today my "A Frequency Dictionary of Spanish" arrived in the mail. This is a book of the most often used 5,000 words in Spanish listed NOT in alphabetical order, but in the order that they are most used in. I'm in Heaven. At word #746 I have only not known 8 of the words (from Spanish to English). I don't know how high my English to Spanish skills would be though. But the first word that I didn't know, #343 reads as follows, "ello pron it (subj-n) ?que se perdia con ello?" (obviously the first question mark is upside-down and I'm missing the accent marks on que and perdia).

This word, "ello", utterly confounds me. For years I have been telling poor pathetic Spanish 1, 2, anad 3 students that there is no such word as "ello" because they figure that since the singular ella turns into the plural ellas, that logically the plural ellos reverts back into the singular ello instead of the actual word "el with an accent on the e". Sigh. There would be a word called ello. What I don't get is who on Earth ever uses this word? I speak Spanish and hear it all the time and in all my 12 years of this language I have never heard this word except in mistaken students. Who uses this word so much that it ranks above important words like "hand" and "room?"!?! Where are they? Is is just some random guy who sits in a room all day saying "ello" to make up for the billions of Spanish speakers who NEVER say this word? Or did they all get together and say, "Hey, we'll trick her. Whatever you do, don't say ello in front of her. Boy, this will be a good joke!"

#343. my downfall.

sigh.