I spent about 10 minutes just now googling them to see if they’d be good in chili. Then I go to google “Serrano +chili” - and the results, to me, look almost as if they’re in a foreign language. I think it’s the disagreement between chili and chile, but I seriously spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out if chili, chile or both were real words. I had a real moment of discomprehension - it’s as if my brain, sensing an ambuity, just refuses to recognize the words chili and chile. And suddenly, the word becomes unreal to me - I can’t read it without getting an internal “huh?”, I can’t spell it, I suddenly feel like I never knew the word to begin with.
This is hardly the first time this has happened to me. I’ve had lots of experiences where a reasonably common word for a brief time becomes foreign to me - I know the concept (in this case, a pepper) but for maybe 10-15 minutes I can’t spell it, read it or say it.
I know I’m a LITTLE crazy, but has anyone else ever experienced anything like this?
I’ve had moments when I can’t think of an extremely common word I want to use, but can usually latch onto it within a minute or two. But never what you seem to be describing. Normal words might look funny to me, and sometimes I can’t remember how to spell a word I’ve never had difficulty with, but what you’re describing sounds like a whole different level!
Me too, more frequently as time passes, it seems like.
Though I can kind of relate to the OP. Sometimes I’ll be reading a book, and a familiar word will just suddenly seem ‘weird’ to me. I cannot explain it better than that, I just end up staring at it with my brain gears grinding for a minute, until some weird sort of mental epiphany seems to occur.
Whenever I look at the phone book, after a little while, the words start to look weird because all of them, start with the same letter. It gets a little creepy - it’s almost like a disconnect in my brain. I know the letters and can read the names, but it just looks bad and creepy and uncomfortable. As if my frontal lobe just rejects it because words aren’t supposed to start with the same letter all the time.
I remember once writing something and I wanted to say, for example, “Obama is sure to win the Democrat nomination,” except I spelled “sure” “shore”. I instantly knew that it was wrong but spent so long trying to think of an alternative spelling that I gave up and substituted “certain”. A minute later, further on, I found myself writing “sure”.
I also have an English word or written phrase linking thing thing or idea to it
But every once in a while, it’s like my brain severs that link - I know exactly what I’m thinking of, but poof like magic I can’t process the language for it.
So I’ll stare at the written word and wonder “what the deuce?”
I’ll know what’s meant, but be almost sure the written word is incorrect. Despite several dictionary checks.
When I went to Seattle last December, I met some Dopers for a Trivia Night. The name of the pub was (IIRC) " Old Peculiar" and although " peculiar" is a word I know, and knew, and understand, ever since that first post telling me where the trivia night was, I have trouble accepting that spelling and the fact that it’s even a word! The first time I glanced at it, I think I read it as “pecu-liar” (the last part like someone who tells a lie!) and I just can’t seem to correct my brain about it. That word will forever be foreign to me!
When I was about seven, I remember this happening the first time. The word was “family”. I thought it was the most intrinsically humourous collection of letters I had ever seen. The last was about twenty minutes ago with the word “gash” (don’t ask). It looked wrong to the point I nearly went to dictionary.com, but had to convince myself not to.
You mean, like that time in an Algebra II test when my mind went so totally blank nothing made any sense, including the bit on top that said “Student’s Name”?
It isn’t usually so bad, but yeah, there’s been other times when I would have bonked myself with the hardcover dictionary - repeatedly.
This usually happens if I see the same word over and over and over again, at which point my brain seems to rearrange the letters into something meaningless just to get a break. One time, after putting labels on dozens of bins for the earth club in high school, I completely lost my grasp on the word “recycle”
It becomes a serious problem if you’re working in data entry, let me tell you.
It was yesterday, and I was trying to write the word ‘nobler’. That word is all kinds of wrong! Nobleer, more noble, nobeller…i had to look it up before I could remember it and now I can only read it as nob-ler. Like knobler would sound. And then I have to giggle.
Yup - I particularly remember a grade 7 history test where I spent a good ten minutes pondering the strange spelling of the word “strength”. It happens periodically but I find it easier to snap out of it now than when in school.
Imagine with Chinese…At least with English you won’t lose grasp of letters. There’re times when some Chinese character (always simple ones) all of a sudden looks weird, kinda distorted to me. It’s like a pretty face suddenly turns ill-proportioned. I’m sure that’s gonna happen more and more often with me writing less and less…
I get the ‘words look wrong!’ effect sometimes. And with really basic words like THE. It really is annoying when my brain says “hmm, the word THE looks like it’s spelled wrong.” even though I know it isn’t. Gets on my nerves I tell ya.
