Do you have a unit of measurement/comparison that is used anecdotally to describe things?
December 3, 2025
In Germany we use "football fields" to illustrate how tall something actually is.
This covers a total area of 38,000 km², which is equivalent to 5.3 football fields.
11 comments
Somehow I doubt that thirty-eight thousand square kilometers and five point three football fields are on comparable orders of magnitude.
1 sasin = 70 million PLN (16.5 million euro)
That’s the amount of money former Minister of Treasury Jacek Sasin lost on 2020 presidential elections that didn’t happen due to covid and he just simply got away with it.
We say “lung cât o zi de post”, which translates to “as long as a day of fasting”, used (obviously) for something that is long (such as a shopping list or a queue).
We have names for banknotes (coming from the time we still paid in guilders), that still equal a certain amount.
snip = 100
rooitje = 100
joet = 10
meier = 100
pinkie = 5
rug = 1000
geeltje = 25
rijksdaalder = 2.50
kwartje = 0.25
dubbeltje / duppie = 0.10
stuiver = 0.05
Me and my friends still play with this, then you have to pay something and it was 5 rooien (500 euros). It’s super working class, like for people that work in a market stall, which is why it’s kind of funny.
In Germany “football fields” is not used to illustrate how tall something is, because “tall” in English is a reference to height, not area.
In the U.K. we use double deckers to compare the size, length or width of various things. Similar for African elephants or blue whales, but also including weight comparisons.
For tall things we might compare it Nelson’s Column
For area we might compare to football pitches too, or Wimbledon’s centre court.
When I lived in the U.K. the reports would always say “an area the size of Wales”
I they always used Wales, not another country/region but I always thought they meant whales.. so confusing
11 comments
Somehow I doubt that thirty-eight thousand square kilometers and five point three football fields are on comparable orders of magnitude.
1 sasin = 70 million PLN (16.5 million euro)
That’s the amount of money former Minister of Treasury Jacek Sasin lost on 2020 presidential elections that didn’t happen due to covid and he just simply got away with it.
We say “lung cât o zi de post”, which translates to “as long as a day of fasting”, used (obviously) for something that is long (such as a shopping list or a queue).
We have names for banknotes (coming from the time we still paid in guilders), that still equal a certain amount.
snip = 100
rooitje = 100
joet = 10
meier = 100
pinkie = 5
rug = 1000
geeltje = 25
rijksdaalder = 2.50
kwartje = 0.25
dubbeltje / duppie = 0.10
stuiver = 0.05
Me and my friends still play with this, then you have to pay something and it was 5 rooien (500 euros). It’s super working class, like for people that work in a market stall, which is why it’s kind of funny.
In Germany “football fields” is not used to illustrate how tall something is, because “tall” in English is a reference to height, not area.
In the U.K. we use double deckers to compare the size, length or width of various things. Similar for African elephants or blue whales, but also including weight comparisons.
For tall things we might compare it Nelson’s Column
For area we might compare to football pitches too, or Wimbledon’s centre court.
When I lived in the U.K. the reports would always say “an area the size of Wales”
I they always used Wales, not another country/region but I always thought they meant whales.. so confusing
Might I refer you to the following?
https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html
Wait, what?! Europeans *not* using the metric system AND measuring things in “football fields”? Is this heaven?
I’ve heard people say “to sekunder” (two seconds) to indicate how long before they’ll be right with you.
[Traditionally](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tinderbox), round things are the size of 1) saucers, 2) mill wheels, or 3) [The Round Tower.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundetaarn)