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Does "estoy en ello" translate to English "I'm on it"? That's a colloquial, informal expression in English. Is it also a colloquial, informal expression in Spanish? Such a coincidence. What's the history of this expression?

English and Spanish have a shared ancestry if you go back two thousand years. Is "estoy en ello" an example of that? Or did Spanish pick up this expression from American movies in the last 20 years? Or vice versa. Perhaps there will be no answers. But it is interesting.

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    "ello" is rather formal in Spanish. To make it informal, you should say "estoy en eso".
    – Gustavson
    Commented Aug 26 at 14:16
  • Alright. Even if it's "estoy en eso".. is that correct (in Spanish)? The point is, that in English, it's an idiom, an informal expression, somewhat unusual.
    – Sam
    Commented Aug 26 at 14:18
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    "Estoy en eso" is both correct and usual in Spanish to mean "I'm dealing with it".
    – Gustavson
    Commented Aug 26 at 14:20
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    @Gustavson In this context, for me "Estoy en ello" is more common that "Estoy en eso" and it's not formal.
    – RubioRic
    Commented Aug 26 at 17:01
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    @Sam Also, I don't agree with your statement about the ancestry. French is not an ancestor of Spanish. French and Spanish both come from Latin. Spanish have some words taken from French.
    – RubioRic
    Commented Aug 26 at 17:07

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