¿Podrías ser más concreto/a?

Question

Since I know Heidita prefers me to ask questions rather than pester her with PMs, here I go:

To this question:

Emmanuel8492

hola ayuda no se ingles :(

Ayuda help me

I responded:

Hola, bienvenido al foro:

Si buscas lecciones de inglés, mira aquí, son lecciones de vídeo gratis:

Aprender inglés 1

Aprender inglés 2

Si buscas algo más, ¿podrías ser más concreto?

To which Heidita left this comment:

concreta.... - Heidita2 4 hrs ago flag

Hmmm, profile not filled out, but Emmanuel sounded male, so I chose bienvenido, and concreto. She did not comment on bienvenido.

I felt I was asking if the person could be more specific. If she had changed podrías to podría I could even sort of understand. But I used podrías.

If I were to have wanted to ask about the question:

¿Podrías hacer una pregunta más concreta?

Or even

¿Podrías hacer una pregunta que sea más concreta?

Now I don’t know the best way to convey the idea of “please be more specific” in Spanish, but in the way I chose to write it, I felt the adjective was directly referring to the person, who I felt was male, not the question.

Question 1: Why did Heidita tell me concreta?

Question 2: What are the more natural ways of politely asking someone to be more specific?

Answer 1

¿Podrías ser más concreto? Por favor da más detalles de tu pedido.
Sé más específico por favor.
Haz una pregunta más concreta.
Sé más preciso en tu pregunta.

Your question is ok for me.

Gracias, Polenta. :) - bosquederoble, Aug 30, 2017

Sorry, Polenta... I accidentally hit your edit button... I didn't do anything else - FELIZ77, Aug 30, 2017

@Feliz...that can be avoided as long as you don't save it at te bottom. :) - rac1, Aug 30, 2017

Answer 2

I see no reason why it should be "concreta". The name Emmanuel would more likely make me think of a male.

Maybe Heidi misunderstood and thought you were referring to the question itself?

"Pregunta concreta?"

Yes, that is why I pointed out I used podrías, not podría, and hinted at maybe that was just not the way to express the concept (sometimes corrections miss the mark when they try to fix something completely off). :) - bosquederoble, Aug 30, 2017

It's clear in your sentence. I meant she probably misread it. - 00fac92a, Aug 30, 2017

Answer 3

Sometimes Heidita works in mysterious ways.
I have no objections to how you worded it.

Thanks, I feel a little less stupid now. :) - bosquederoble, Aug 30, 2017

Answer 4

Emmanuel <--------------- I have only known one Emmanuelle (ending with an e, I had no idea there was a difference) so I concluded it was a woman.

hence: Puedes ser concreto was wrong.

I have not seen this name used for a man, ever. In Spain it is Manuel...not so different, now that I am writing it.

anyway,

Sometimes Heidita works in mysterious ways.

Even though this time it was a simple misunderstanding, the above is true

Now if you had corrected me to bienvenida as well, that is the conclusion I would have come to. :) - bosquederoble, Aug 30, 2017

Es que pasaste demasiado tiempo viendo películas cuestionables durante los 70, Heidita. ;-p - Gekkosan, Aug 30, 2017

Id always thought of Emmanual as a male name but I had forgotten about Silvie Cristal. Heard a lot of chat but not seen the film. Surely you've heard of Emmanuel Macron? - Mardle, Aug 30, 2017

Answer 5

sorry. deleted you all can edit this post to see what i wrote.

I have not understand correctly what Bosque was asking.

question 1 . Ask to heidita

question 2 ¿Podrías hacer una pregunta más concreta?

¿Podrías hacer una pregunta que sea más concreta?

both are polite , and like in English there are other ways of saying the same but your options are totally ok

please help asto with his English, - 006595c6, Aug 30, 2017

(I did not understand (preferable) or I have not understood), Ask Heidita. As is a bit better than like, saying the same is okay, but saying the same thing would be a bit more natural. :) - bosquederoble, Aug 30, 2017