I have been watching a documentation in which a professor said "Rocks in the size of a Volkswagen" and meanwhile the german translation was "Steine in der Größe eines Kleinwagens", which means "Rock in the size of a small car". I could not really find something online, so maybe this is an urban saying? Or just an habit of this prof? Or is it something completely normal to say?
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5Perhaps he was thinking of the VW 'Beetle', a car whose appearance is easily visualised by many people.– Kate BuntingCommented Mar 8, 2021 at 8:47
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1The "in" confuses me. Unless it's meant in the same sense as: "Dresses in size 10" or "shirts in the size of a zeppelin" or whatever. But it sounds decidedly unnatural in this context.– Prime MoverCommented Mar 8, 2021 at 9:25
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2How old was this piece? Once upon a time the Beetle was the only car that VW made, so the comparison was pretty uncomplicated. As noted "in" is unusual.– MikeBCommented Mar 8, 2021 at 9:49
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2Seems like a bit of a cultural difference. The metaphor is fairly understandable in the US, where VW is mostly known for the Beetle and anything smaller than a pickup truck is a "small car", but could be confusing to Europeans where VW has more presence and VW cars aren't really considered particularly small.– Maciej StachowskiCommented Mar 8, 2021 at 10:17
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2@MichaelHarvey yeah, and that's what the German translator went with - but the connotation of "Volkswagen" with "a small car" would probably be lost on the European audience if the phrase was translated literally.– Maciej StachowskiCommented Mar 8, 2021 at 10:40
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1 Answer
While it's not an "urban saying"* or any specific English idiom, there's a bit of a cultural distinction here.
It's safe to assume that the original lecture was delivered to a primarily American audience. In the US, Volkswagen is a brand associated with small, compact cars - most notably the various variants of the Beetle. So the metaphor works - a rock "the size of a Volkswagen" is roughly the size of a car, but closer to a Beetle than to a Chevy Impala or other full-sized cars the Americans are more accustomed to.
On the other hand, if translated directly to German and intended for a German audience, the metaphor loses its meaning - there's nothing special about a size of a Volkswagen in Europe, both because Europeans are more familiar with other Volkswagen models such as a Passat or Golf, and because full-sized cars are notably less popular on European streets. So "the size of a Volkswagen" means little to someone in Europe, for whom Volkswagen is just an average car.
Hence the indirect translation to Kleinwagen - a "small car" (or rather, a specific class of small cars).
* Side note: you might want to avoid that phrasing.
answered Mar 8, 2021 at 17:51
