Glossary entry

Dutch term or phrase:

Meten is weten!

English translation:

The numbers tell the tale

Added to glossary by Ken Cox
Mar 20, 2005 12:03
19 yrs ago
21 viewers *
Dutch term

Meten is weten!

Dutch to English Other Linguistics
This is about a software package for measuring traffic on a website. Of course it is easy to translate **meten is weten**, but I can't think of a similar catchy way to phrase it English as it is in the original Dutch.

Any good suggestions?

Discussion

Non-ProZ.com Mar 20, 2005:
I don't think any of the suggestions so far can be used in the context. It seesm to me that the best would be a literal translation, which would be "measuring is knowing" as it has to do with measuring web traffic and then applying that knowledge. This just simply does not sound as catchy to me, however, as the original Dutch.

Proposed translations

+4
8 hrs
Selected

The numbers tell the tale

The following is all IMHO.

In advertising and promotional texts the whole point is to sell the product, and in translations of such texts, exact translation of the original text is (generally speaking) less important than the sales impact. After all, the original text was chosen with this objective, and its literal or objective meaning is of secondary importance (unlike technical or legal texts, for example).

'Exact' (and in particular literal) translations of sayings and maxims used as headings or eyecatchers in promotional texts often fail to have the same impact in the target language, and in many cases they come across as forced or strange -- the last thing you want in a promotional text.
The best you can hope to do is to think of something that has a similar relationship to the general content or subject of the text and catches the reader's attention. And if you do manage this, you might ponder why you're working for translater's rates when you could be asking copywriter rates...
Peer comment(s):

agree writeaway : super solution
41 mins
agree Deborah do Carmo : (post grading) that's it - well done!
18 hrs
agree Michael Beijer
3699 days
agree Lauren Allum
5280 days
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "This was what I was looking for. Very well put, thank you very much."
+2
16 mins

Knowledge is power?

??
Peer comment(s):

agree Iris70 : could work
5 hrs
Thank you
agree D.K. Tannwitz : :-))
7 hrs
Thank you
Something went wrong...
+1
20 mins

measure to manage

...
Peer comment(s):

agree Francina : managing by measuring
6 hrs
Something went wrong...
+2
4 hrs

Seeing is believing

This the closest I could think of in the form of a commonly used phrase.
Peer comment(s):

agree Ariser
46 mins
Thank you
agree Deborah do Carmo
1 hr
Thank you
Something went wrong...
7 hrs

measure for experience

or: dimension for extention
Something went wrong...
+1
2457 days

to measure is to know

'To measure is to know.'
'If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.'
'Lord Kelvin
Peer comment(s):

neutral writeaway : only if a 100% literal translation is being sought. and if it fits the context, which it doesn't here.
1234 days
beep beep!
agree Lauren Allum
2823 days
Something went wrong...
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search