_____ってあれだよね
What is あれ in this context? Is the speaking making a positive or negative statement about _____?
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2 Answers
I have also ran into this phrase and now I kind of understand its meaning though, getting used to applying it to the correct scenario is very tricky indeed. I still can't.
The instance of this phrase that I remember, is from when we were waiting for somebody to finish something:
今のところ、◯◯さん待ちです。
To which ◯◯さん answered:
ちょっと、◯◯さん待ちって言われても、あれだよね…
Which I guess could be translated into something along the lines of:
Hey, saying that you all are waiting for me, (...vagueness...) you know.
Where the vagueness could imply something like: "you're putting pressure on me", "is kind of, you know?"
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In which case the (vagueness) meant something like "I should hurry up?" or "you're putting pressure on me?".– decezeJun 5, 2011 at 5:51
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For what it's worth, this example is similar to the context where I found the phrase in the first place.– Amanda SJun 5, 2011 at 5:55
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2You got it right. This あれだ/あれな means something negative, without specifying the nature of negativity. Jun 5, 2011 at 20:26
It's one of those terrifically vague statements that doesn't mean much by itself. It can mean anything, depending on the context and how well the listener knows the speaker and what he's talking about. The speaker may be stalling while he's thinking about what he's trying to say. He may be talking about something that was mentioned before in the conversation. He may just be introducing a new topic, which he's going to expand upon from here. He may be hinting at something that he doesn't want to name but that the listener would understand.
〜ってあれだよね…
- "That's that thing, right? *wink wink nudge nudge*"
- "Oh, that's that, isn't it? Whatchamacallit… uhm…"
- "That's just like…"
- "Oh, you mean that. :-/"
サッカーってあれだよね。ボールを足でキックするやつでしょう？
"Soccer" is this thing where you kick a ball with your feet, right?
Fooってあれだよね… えぇっと、何だっけ？
"Foo" is that thingamabob there, right? Uhm… what's it again exactly?
Fooってあれだよね。Barみたいな感じでしょう？
"Foo" is just like this "bar" thing, right?
あっ、アレだ！思い出した！
Ah, I remembered!
It means just as much or as little as "that" does in English.
It means so little and comes so naturally to Japanese that it can be comical. When people (I know well) lapse into an 「あれだ…」, I sometimes jokingly reply 「あぁ、アレですか？なるほど、そうですよね。ふむふむ。」 to point out that they haven't actually said anything.
