that might not mean what you think.

In English, flak is anti-aircraft fire

or, metaphorically, heavy criticism or insults.

But the German word Flak is actually an abbreviation of “Fliegerabwehrkanone”,

which means: “anti-aircraft gun”.

It’s a matter of perspective:

for the Germans in the Second World War, this was the name they gave to the guns;

but for the Americans and British, who were on the receiving end,

it meant the shells fired from the guns.

Americans usually use this word to mean a concerted or intense effort;

so an “advertising blitz” would be a massive PR campaign.

In Britain, the word refers to bombing campaigns on London and other cities

by Germans in 1940 and 1941.

But in German, the word “Blitz” actually means “lightning”.

You may recall, for example, that two of Santa’s reindeer

are called Donner and Blitzen, from the Germanic words for thunder and lightning.

But it actually came into English as an abbreviation of “Blitzkrieg”, “lightning war”.

This is a type of warfare that involves sudden surprise attacks

to overwhelm the enemy before they can properly mobilize.

Ironically, there’s actually no evidence

that the Nazis used this word during the Second World War.

In fact, Hitler himself said he thought the word was silly.

This used to be the first line of the German National Anthem,

and is commonly believed by many people to mean

that Germany is superior to every other country in the world.

In fact, when it was written it had a completely different meaning.

As hundreds of tiny little states came together

to form a country in the more modern sense of the word,

people had to be persuaded

that this new Germany was far more important than their local regions.

People should stop fighting each other, and unite.

This was the name of a company somewhere in North America

that produced what they said was a German snack food.

Basically, it involved putting tortilla chips in a bag

then pouring more food over the top of that

claiming that their name was German for “food in a bag”.

Not surprisingly, their Facebook page has not been updated since 2010.

People who didn’t know German laughed,

because it looked to them as if it should be pronounced “douchebag”.

People who did know German laughed,

because not only is it almost unpronounceable,

but it’s utterly meaningless.

For those who want to know,

the German for “food in a bag” would be “Essen in der Tüte”.

And no, this product has never been seen in Germany.

In America, schnapps with two Ps is a grain spirit

to which flavours and sugar are added, resulting in a syrupy alcoholic beverage.

In Germany, Schnaps with one P

is a drink distilled from fermented grain or fruit

containing at least 15% alcohol,

and absolutely not syrupy at all.

This word has also provided German speakers with the excellent word “Schnapsidee”.

This is an idea that could only have come about through the influence of too much Schnaps:

a crazy or crackpot idea.

The kind of idea that would lead to a video like this.