Why do we sometimes say a word or look at a word so many times that it sounds foreign/doesn’t look like a real word?

Question

I hope this makes sense

Like when you’re taking notes and you write a word and it just doesn’t seem spelled correctly no matter what or it just seems strange, or when you say a word and it feels weird coming out and you have difficulty comprehending that it’s an actual word.

In: Other

Answer 1

Most of the top comments are correct that there are theories and ideas behind it. What I think is the case in ELI5 language:

The more we say something the less we think about the meaning behind the word and the more we focus on the sound.

We start to see “apple” as the sounds “ap” + el” and less the idea behind it (fruit, colour, sound, taste, etc).