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> _____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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2011-06-05T02:47:59.120
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question
definitions
Meaning of 〜あれだ
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.
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2011-06-05T03:20:23.620
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answer
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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2011-06-05T05:47:15.247
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answer