Music: talking about chord progressions without knowing the key

i seem to have this problem of describing chord progressions to others. most of the time, when people ask me, "eh what are the chords of this song playing now?" then i'll be like, well firstly i need to know what key it's in.

i don't have absolute pitch; i.e. i can't tell you what note is being played currently or what key a particular song that is being played now is in. however, as long as i'm given a reference note i can work out the key from there. that's perfect pitch. so for all those who know me, i have perfect pitch but i don't have absolute pitch...

so yeah when i describe the the chord progressions to others, i'll be like, "ok assume this is in the key of C major, then the chord now would be blah blah blah..."

but i wanna describe a generic chord. like i wanna say "this is the tonic major, this is the major fourth, this is major fifth, this is minor sixth etc." however people don't seem to understand me.

considering i don't have much music theory background, maybe i'm actually missing something here and that there IS a way of describing generic chord progressions. anyone keen on sharing???