"He has experience."

Translation: Han har erfarenhet.

[nphx2]

Just to make sure, erfarenhet refers to experience (uncountable) meaning knowledge, while upplevelse refers to experience (countable) meaning an event you remember. Correct?

[Arnauti]

Yes, exactly. So if he would have an experience, say a religious one, it would be Han har en [religiös] upplevelse.

[nphx2]

Wouldn't that imply that the person has a religious experience in that very moment? :D

[Arnauti]

Yes. Change the time by changing har into hade (='had') or har haft ('has had').

[RichardB_Lebanon]

I did not get the difference netween upplevelse and erfarenhet.. and i assume they are not exchangeable right?

[Arnauti]

upplevelse is about how you feel and erfarenhet is about knowledge or getting used to things.
experience can be both, but it cannot mean upplevelse in this case because there is no article in the English sentence.
I am having an experience would be Jag har en upplevelse. (not 'erfarenhet')

[RichardB_Lebanon]

Oh ok i think i got it now.. but i still have some ddoubts:)

So for saying: i have 9 years of experience ( workwise.. lets say software engineering)
I would say: jag har 9 år erfarenhet?

And if i want to continue talking about it by saying .. it was such an experience (i got/received).. it would be:

Det var en sådan upplevelse.

I am not sure I am correct..

[Arnauti]

You're right, except we say nio årS erfarenhet, it's the genitive as in nine years of.

[RichardB_Lebanon]

Perfect!
Tusentack!

[ishouldbesolucke]

What about experience points in a game? I would've thought it would be "upplevelse" because you level up but now I'm not so sure.

[Arnauti]

I only ever say xp, [ɛkspe], but the long word is erfarenhetspoäng.

uplevlelse should be a fun pun on upplevelse and levla upp (which is how we say 'level up' as a verb) but I guess it's just too hard to hear the difference in pronunciation.