Concrete is a building material; as an adjective it means made of concrete, or “specific, based on facts”: concrete evidence is solid proof, and concrete plans are definite plans. If your language has a word like German konkret or Spanish concreto, the meanings overlap only partly. When you mean “precisely”, use exactly: What exactly do you mean? A particular person or a specific book is particular or specific, not concrete. And a concrete jungle is a city of nothing but tall buildings.
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made of concrete; a concrete floor/wall; concrete + evidence/plans/example/steps
- The new library is a huge grey building made of glass and concrete.
- Can you give me a concrete example of how this rule works?
- We talked about moving abroad, but we haven't made any concrete plans yet.
What changed
First versionWhat concretely do you mean by 'a better schedule'?
RevisionWhat exactly do you mean by 'a better schedule'?
Concretely seems a natural way to ask for details, but a native speaker would say What exactly…? Concretely is rare, sounds bookish and isn't used in a question like this. Only that word was changed.
Concrete and cement are easy to confuse. Cement is the powder that is mixed with sand and water to make concrete. That's why a bridge or a wall is made of concrete: a concrete bridge.
Your turn
The police have no ___ evidence against him, only rumours from his neighbours.
Show the answer
concrete — Concrete evidence means real proof based on facts, and the contrast with rumours points to this option. People don't say exact evidence: exact is used for numbers, times and words, as in the exact time.
Write about a plan you've been discussing for a long time but haven't started. Name one concrete step you could take this week.
My sister and I have been talking about a trip to Japan for two years, and the first concrete step this week is to compare flight prices.
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