Even in our own mother tongue, we still learn a new word every two days

When we learn a new word, we continuously update our knowledge around that word until we have a firm grasp of it, Gaskell says. He gives the example of "breakfast", a word most of us use confidently. But when another, similar-sounding word comes along, it can renew our uncertainty around that existing word.

"At some point in the last five years or so, you would have learned the word 'Brexit' [referring to the UK's vote to leave the European Union], and that's a strong competitor to 'breakfast'," he says.

When the new word "Brexit" competed with the existing word "breakfast" in people's minds, mix-ups happened. A plethora of newsreaders and politicians came up with phrases like "Brexit means breakfast" and "ploughing ahead with a hard breakfast". To use the new word appropriately, and distinguish it from similar-sounding words, we need to link it to our existing knowledge, Gaskell says: "And in order to do that, you need to have some sleep."

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230213-how-people-dream-in-foreign-languages