I sometimes find that when Japanese answer my questions, their answers are too vague. For instance, I asked what つなぎ is in a given context. A Japanese person told me it is 作業着の種類, "a type of work clothes." That's still too vague for me. Is it a kind of cloth? What are the other types? What can I say to get more clarification to get a better explanation of what exactly つなぎ is?
asked Jul 31, 2011 at 16:08
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2 Answers
ええと…もっと具体的に？それだけでは、よく分からないのです…
Which means something like "Hum… more precisely? I am not sure I understand with such a concise explanation". This is quite oral, as you may guess.
The best way to get clarification is to ask a question that illustrates what exactly you're confused about. You've already asked these in English:
"Is it a kind of cloth?" それは生地の一種ですか？ (Answer: no, it's a type of clothing, not cloth)
"What are the other types?" 作業着といえば他にどんなのがありますか？
If you just ask "could you clarify?", your conversation partner is tasked with guessing what you could possibly be confused about, since they probably don't think that they said anything vague.
