Business English Vocabulary: First-Hand Experience

Learn Business English vocabulary with our 'Phrase of the Week'! Each week, we introduce a new phrase to help you sound more natural and confident in your professional communication. Don’t forget to visit our website regularly to discover new phrases and tips.

Here's this week's phrase:

HAVE FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE

phrase

to personally experience something rather than learn about it from others

She has first-hand experience in managing large teams. (= She knows how to manage large teams because she has done it before.)

We learned a lot from people who had first-hand experience with the project. (= We learned a lot of useful information from people who worked on the project directly.)

He has no first-hand experience in running a business, but he's read a lot about it. (= He has never run a business, but he's been learning how to do it.)

He has first-hand experience managing a team. (= He has personally managed a team before.)

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Instead of using HAVE in HAVE FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE, you can also use the verbs GAIN or GET to express the same idea.

He gained first-hand experience while working on the project.

Students can get first-hand experience in the lab by conducting their own experiments.

They gained first-hand experience during the internship.

Can you find a mistake in this sentence?

She gained first-hands experience by working at her family's restaurant.