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> ゴリラが頭を掻いてる姿がダドリーそっくりだ。 **あれで金髪だったらな**.....。(ellipsis as written)  
>  The gorilla scratching its head looked just like Dudley. ????

I don't know what あれで金髪だったらな means or what the grammar is. Guesses are "If
only it were blond...", "Except it wasn't blond..." etc.

Obviously 金髪だったら is "if it were blond", but I have no idea what あれで is doing
or what な is doing. The dictionary says あれで means "despite appearances" but
that makes no sense to me.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-03T21:37:10.143
73717
2020-01-03T22:30:38.213
7944
question
grammar
Meaning of あれで + noun+ だったらな
あれで is equivalent to あの様でいて, whose literal translation is "(That thing) exists
in that way (and/but)".

Thus it can be used as

> あの様でいて、さらに金髪だったらもっと彼に似ているのになぁ

which can be shortened to:

> あれで金髪だったらもっと似ているのになぁ

and then further to:

> あれで金髪だったらなぁ

What exactly is shortened needs to be guessed, so I can't be 100% sure what is
implied, but one interpretation here is that the way the gorilla exists
(appears) already resembles Dudley, and if it had blond hair on top of that it
would resemble him even more. Another valid example interpretation would be
`あの様でいて、さらに金髪だったらもっと好きになるのに` (which, however, seems less likely given the
context!).

The "despite appearance" usage can be explained as follows.  
Something like this:

> あの様に自信ありげでいて、実は小心者なのだ

can be shortened to:

> あの様でいて、実は小心者なのだ

and this further to:

> あれで小心者なのだ

which implies, despite this person looking confident, they are actually
anxious (again, what exactly is implied by the last sentence needs to be
guessed).
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-03T22:30:38.213
73719
2020-01-03T22:30:38.213
499
73717
answer