z.B.: etwas (gut) auf den Punkt bringen

#2 - die Vorschläge beschreiben in einem relativ formalen Stil, was gemeint ist, mir scheinen aber umgangssprachliche - "griffige" - Redewendungen gesucht zu sein.

#5 - nein!

doch -

#7- Also jedenfalls eben auch: treffend formulieren

Umgangssprachlich könnte man auch sagen:

Da ist (et)was dran.

Dann lies du bitte nochmal #7 und #5, "etwas auf den Punkt bringen" ist keine Übersetzung von "to make a fair point".

Nein, ich gebe nämlich - wie du auch - am liebsten mir selber recht! :-)

I agree with penguin, Happy Warrior and Butazon. To make a fair point doesn't mean 'treffend formulieren'.

#12 - "He said, ‘Look, just because people aren’t saying this word, doesn’t mean that racism no longer exists'. 'That's a fair point. I mean it's true.'"

Fwiw, I don't think "to make a fair point" is the same thing as "hitting the nail on its head."

I agree to a a certain degree (compare #6).

That's lovely, I'm sure.

@13

Parts of #13 seem misleading to me. I think #2 and #9 were the closest so far.

#18: #9 seems fine to me too, but if you want to argue that all of the suggestions in #2 idiomatically fit with the context given in #12/13, you must be joking.

maxx, I think you may just be laboring under a misunderstanding here -- that's what several people were trying to get across.

'A fair point' is an idiom. The links in the original post were only examples of typical contexts. The suggestions in #2 all fit within my understanding of the idiom.

Other suggestions such as 'auf den Punkt bringen,' 'den Nagel auf den Kopf treffen,' 'etwas zusammenfassen,' and 'etwas treffend formulieren' do not match the idiom, in my experience. That's not what 'a fair point' means -- it means something more like 'da hat er ja recht' or 'da ist ja was dran.'

But you do not seriously want to argue that you could actually write those ideas into a newspaper article like that, do you? I actually agree that the ideas in #2 sort of describe what is meant, but, apart from, "da hat er recht", htey are idiomatic at all. So would you find it, e.g., idiomatic to write:

I don't think "making a fair point" would be something you'd read in a news story, either. That's because "a fair point" would be a judgment call, and news stories usually don't make judgment calls - or at least they're not supposed to. You would be more likely to read that phrase in an opinion piece or some other type of editorial, but not in a straight news story. And in opinion pieces, in AE at least, the writers are known to have - and make use of - much more leeway in terms of casual language.

#22 - As it appears, we are dealing with some sort of human interest story.

#22 I don't think "making a fair point" would be something you'd read in a news story

Right, I forgot about quotes, but again, that's someone's opinion and not the journalist reporting the straight facts.

indeed

Yes, the expression 'that's a fair point' is often followed by a 'But...'.