I chalk that up to inexperience

Yes you can, but I would say: put it/that down to inexperience.

PeaceblinkfriendI chalk that up to inexperience

This is a perfectly natural thing to say in AmE.

Variations include:

I'll chalk that one up to inexperience.
Let's chalk that (that one) up to...

those are all that come to mind at the moment but there are probably many others.

PeaceblinkfriendCan I say I chalk that up to inexperience to mean that something happened because of a lack of experience?


Thanks

PBF

'Chalk up' comes from the idea of keeping score with a piece of chalk on the slate or blackboard. It's very common in the U.S. The idea of 'experience' indicates that the mistake wa

To me (UK), the expression is usually "chalk that up to experience" (32,000 Google hits), which means that you've screwed up but you'll hopefully learn from it. I'm not sure I've ever heard "chalk that up to inexperience" (2,510 Google hits) -- or maybe I have, but I've just assumed the person said (or meant) "experience" wihout it really registering.

Like Optilang, with

Or:
I consider that as (plain) inexperience
I consider that as being the result of inexperience

Mr WordyTo me (UK), the expression is usually "chalk that up to experience"

Good catch, Mr Wordy! I hadn't noticed the 'in' in inexperience, even when I used 'experience' in my post.

It reads totally naturally to me - perhaps everyone I know misues the idiom.

A: Why did this happen?
B: System failure.

A: And this one? Why did that happen?
B: Human error.
A: Be more clear - what type of human error?
B: He wasn't really familiar enough with how it worked. We could call it a training error.
A: Okay, let's chalk it up to inexperience. (Let's

PeaceblinkfriendCan I say I chalk that up to inexperience

Sounds fine to me.
CJ

Thanks for all your replies. It looks like it is another British and American English usage difference.

Another question. Should I have left out the article 'a' when I said 'Can I say I chalk that up to inexperience to mean that something happened because of a lack of experience?' ?

Thanks again

PBF