Pot vs. Bocal

Question

Why is bocal not acceptable for jar ?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Frank,
"Bocal" is used when the jar is usually empty or in a specific context. See the following examples:

At breakfast:
Tu me passes le pot de confiture s'il te plaît?  = Can you give me the jam jar please?

Making preserves:
Tu me passes le bocal à confiture s'il te plaît ? = Can you give me the preserving jar please?

I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

In my understanding, bocal would be fine in this context. What you interpret as a "correction" of your sentence is nothing more than a way to highlight the differences between your answer and the preferred answer. It doesn't mean that what you wrote is necessarily wrong.