Word of the Day: Experience
An experience is something that happens. This word can be used as either a count noun or a noncount noun. It’s necessary to know the difference between them.
In the first set of examples, “experience” is a noncount noun that refers to knowledge gained from activity that occurred over a period of time:
- How much experience do you have?
- Was living in Europe a good experience?
- Abel has a lot of experience as a musician.
- Cynthia has military experience.
In these sentences and questions, the word “experience” is a count noun. It’s similar to the word “situation.”
- Bob and Lauren had an interesting experience when they visited Africa.
- Matt had some bad experiences at the dentist when he was a boy.
- Several good experiences as a student led Jennifer into the teaching profession.
- This has been a long and tiring experience.
The “word” experience is also a regular verb:
| simple | past | past participle |
|---|---|---|
|
experience
|
experienced
|
experienced
|
- The passengers experienced a little turbulence during the flight.
- The patient said she has been experiencing some pain in her stomach.
- We’re experiencing some problems with our satellite.
- Travelers on the highway were warned that they might experience some delays due to road construction.
You can use “experienced” as an adjective:
- She’s a very experienced dentist.
- He’s experienced as an actor.
- They said that the person doing the work is very experienced.
- An experienced negotiator is handling the situation.
*Thanks to Blue Level Chat Room survivors for this suggestion!
Essential English Dictionary
Visit the Popular English Words Beginning with E page to see the list of all words starting with letter E. For seeing the HiCafe dictionary, visit the Popular English Words with Meaning page.
