What does la tía / el tío (hablando de alguien) mean?

ExpressionColoquial

that woman, that bloke — said at arm's length

This is not the tío you call a friend. Talking about a third party, la tía or el tío replaces the name and marks distance, nearly always with a note of contempt or disbelief: la tía se viene arriba, el tío se presentó sin avisar. Very common and not vulgar, but never neutral.

Y va el tío y me dice que la culpa era mía.
Named without being named, and not kindly.

¡Vale! for iOS

Hear it the way Spain actually says it

In the app, expressions are taught inside real conversations from Spain: read cold, explained line by line, then read again. It’s the Spanish textbooks leave out.

07

Unit 07

Compartir piso

«somos un puto desastre»

The ¡Vale! app: a conversation from Spain, read with its recording
Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play