Concrete
Susana went on a shopping spree to New York. She asked the shop assistants if they had "a concrete bag". She was puzzled as to why they didn't understand her..
She realised later the mistake that she had made.
She had been asking for a bag made of concrete - hormigón. It's no wonder that the shop assistants thought she was mad.
It would have been pretty heavy to bring back to Spain anyway.
What should she have said?
She should have asked for " a special kind of bag".
Concrete can be used to mean definite or specific - a concrete answer, a concrete proposal, a concrete time, concrete evidence - but with intangible nouns.
Comments
I'll never forget this word
I have breakfast in bed at the weekends, and I watch Larry King's show on CNN if he has interesting guests.
Do you know the man I mean? Google him to see a photo.
Well, I was manouvering into bed with my breakfast when I heard them announce the start of the show.
"Now for the man with the glasses and suspenders"
"suspenders" are "ligas" - what a certain kind of woman wears :-)
So I imagined Larry King was doing an impression of the Rocky Horror show.
I have learned a new word since then. "suspenders" are for Americans, what we call "braces" in the UK. In Spanish you say "tirantes".
Larry King is famous for his large glasses and braces/suspenders!
As I say, we learn from our mistakes!