kokemusta

Kokemusta is the partitive singular form of the Finnish noun kokemus, meaning experience or familiarity gained through events, activities, or exposure. It is used to express a person’s possession of experience in a particular area, or to refer to experience in an indefinite, non-countable sense. In everyday Finnish, the partitive is commonly used after verbs of possession or in contexts where the experience is not treated as a discrete quantity.

Origin and grammar: Kokemus comes from the verb kokea (to experience) with the nominalizing suffix -mus. The basic form is kokemus; its inflected forms include kokemuksen (genitive), kokemusta (partitive), and kokemuksia (partitive plural). The partitive kokemusta is typically used when the experience is partial, indefinite, or evaluated in terms of amount, and after negation (ei). For example, "minulla on kokemusta ohjelmoinnista" or "hänellä ei ole kokemusta myynnistä."

Usage notes and examples: Expressions such as "kokenut" (experienced) describe a person’s capability, while "kokemus" can be elaborated with adjectives like "laaja kokemus" (extensive experience) or "käytännön kokemus" (practical experience). Common collocations include "työelämän kokemusta," "koulutuksen kokemusta" or "projektinhallinnan kokemusta." Example sentences: "Minulla on kokemusta ohjelmoinnista ja projektinhallinnasta." "Kokemusta karttuu käytännön työssä."