Ela tem muita experiência.

She has a lot of experience.

Breakdown of Ela tem muita experiência.

• ela: she
• ter: to have
• a experiência: the experience
• muita: much

Questions & Answers about Ela tem muita experiência.

Why is tem used here and not something like é or está?

In Portuguese, ter means to have, and tem is the 3rd person singular form (“he/she has”).

• Ela tem muita experiência. = She has a lot of experience.
• é = is (permanent characteristics, identity, etc.)
• está = is (being) (temporary states, locations, etc.)

You’re talking about possessing experience, so you need ter, not ser (é) or estar (está).

What’s the full present-tense conjugation of ter, and where does tem fit?

Ter (to have) in the present indicative (Portugal):

• eu tenho – I have
• tu tens – you have (informal singular)
• ele / ela / você tem – he / she / you (formal) has
• nós temos – we have
• vós tendes – you (plural, archaic/literary) have
• eles / elas / vocês têm – they / you (plural) have

In Ela tem muita experiência, tem is the 3rd person singular form used with ela (she).

Why is it muita experiência and not muito experiência?

In Portuguese, adjectives and quantifiers agree in gender and number with the noun.

• experiência is feminine singular (you can see the -a ending and it takes a: a experiência).
• muito must match it:
  
  • muito – masculine singular (e.g. muito trabalho)
  • muita – feminine singular (e.g. muita experiência)
  • muitos – masculine plural (e.g. muitos livros)
  • muitas – feminine plural (e.g. muitas ideias)

So you need muita experiência because experiência is feminine singular.

So is Ela tem muito experiência wrong?

Yes, Ela tem muito experiência is grammatically incorrect.

You must use muita to agree with the feminine noun experiência:

• ✅ Ela tem muita experiência.
• ❌ Ela tem muito experiência.

Why is there no article? Why not Ela tem uma muita experiência or Ela tem a muita experiência?

In Portuguese, when you talk about an indefinite, abstract quantity of something (like a lot of experience, money, patience), you normally use muito/muita directly before the noun, without an article:

• Ela tem muita experiência. – She has a lot of experience.
• Ele tem muito dinheiro. – He has a lot of money.

Uma muita experiência and a muita experiência are not idiomatic and sound wrong in this context.

You can use an article with grande experiência, for example:

• Ela tem uma grande experiência na área. – She has great experience in the field.

But that’s a different expression, not just adding an article to the original sentence.

Could I say Ela tem experiência muita with the adjective after the noun?

No, not in this sentence.

Quantifiers like muito/muita/muitos/muitas that mean a lot of / much / many normally come before the noun:

• muita experiência
• muito trabalho
• muitas pessoas

Experiência muita sounds wrong here. Adjectives can often go after the noun (e.g. uma experiência longa – a long experience), but muito/muita as a quantifier of amount stays in front.

Can I drop ela and just say Tem muita experiência?

Yes, in many contexts you can omit the subject pronoun in Portuguese:

• Tem muita experiência.

This would often still be understood as She has a lot of experience if the person is clear from context. Portuguese is a pro-drop language—subject pronouns are frequently omitted when the verb form and/or context make the subject obvious.

However, if it’s the beginning of a conversation, or if you need to be very clear who you’re talking about, it’s safer to keep Ela.

How is Ela tem muita experiência pronounced in European Portuguese?

Approximate European Portuguese pronunciation (Lisbon-type accent):

• Ela → [ˈɛ.lɐ] – first syllable stressed, final a is a reduced /ɐ/ sound.
• tem → [tẽj̃] – nasal vowel, ends with a light nasal glide, somewhat like “teng” without a clear g.
• muita → [ˈmũj.tɐ] – mui- is nasalized; sounds something like “mooin-tuh”, but shorter and more nasal.
• experiência → [(ɨ)ʃ.pɨ.ɾi.ˈẽ.si.ɐ]
  
  • initial e often reduced or very short,
  • x → [ʃ] like “sh” in “she”,
  • stress on -ên- (the nasal ẽ),
  • final -cia → roughly “see-uh” but compact.

Said together, it’s something like:
[ˈɛ.lɐ tẽj̃ ˈmũj.tɐ (ɨ)ʃ.pɨ.ɾi.ˈẽ.si.ɐ].

What’s the difference between muita experiência and muitas experiências?

• muita experiência = a lot of experience (experience as an uncountable, general quality)

  • Ela tem muita experiência. – She has a lot of experience.

• muitas experiências = many experiences (individual events or occasions)

  • Ela teve muitas experiências interessantes. – She had many interesting experiences.

So muita experiência talks about overall experience as a quality, while muitas experiências focuses on multiple specific experiences.

Is there another natural way to say the same thing, like using experiente?

Yes, you can also say:

• Ela é muito experiente. – She is very experienced.

Differences in nuance:

• Ela tem muita experiência.

  • Emphasises the amount of experience she has.

• Ela é muito experiente.

  • Emphasises the quality/trait of being experienced.

Both are natural and common; they’re often interchangeable in practice.

Is this sentence the same in Brazilian Portuguese, or is it specific to Portugal?

Ela tem muita experiência. is correct and natural in both European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese.

Differences would be mainly in pronunciation, not in grammar or vocabulary. Both varieties would use this sentence in the same situations and with the same meaning.

Could I use possuir instead of ter, like Ela possui muita experiência?

Yes, that is grammatically correct:

• Ela possui muita experiência.

However:

• ter is more common and more neutral in everyday speech.
• possuir often feels more formal, technical, or written, and in European Portuguese can sometimes sound a bit heavy in casual conversation.

For most contexts, especially spoken, Ela tem muita experiência is the most natural choice.