Aquellos: one of those
Fue una de aquellas noches en las que, a pesar de que nada te previene de dormir, para nada no podés hacerlo. / It was one of those nights in which, despite the fact that nothing prevents you from sleeping, you just can’t seem to do it.
A veces me encuentro con aquel pensador que no te permite ninguna premisa de tal modo que la conversación ni tiene un punto de partida. / Sometimes I find myself with one of those thinkers that doesn’t allow any premise, to such an extent that the conversation doesn’t even have a starting point.
Once again, this is one of those words that the dictionary defines very well but for which I have found a useful usage that does not appear in the dictionary. It is the above.
On another note, I don’t like this usage of “those” in English. At least, not in writing–if the object is really “one of those,” we’ll know that when you describe it. E.g., “I was sitting at the bar, watching basketball after a long day of work when, from behind me and to the left, where the entrance was, I heard ‘bruh, that shit was so fire.’ I turned my gaze over my shoulder and saw a large, buff dude in a small, V-neck T-shirt and a backwards, patterned cap coming in.” Hopefully I’ve done that right and you could think “oh yeah, one of those dudes.” Even though I don’t always like it, it is a usage I’ve seen.
It should go without saying that not all usages of aquel carry the meaning I’ve described. For example: “…I just remember Margarita, aquella muchacha linda que me entregó su amor / I just remember Margarita, that lovely lady that handed me her heart” (Margarita, Romeo Santos). In this case, it just emphasizes the distance between the singer and his ex-lover.
