I am going to be honest here and tell you that although I love Asturias and have always lived here, I miss the light.  Whenever it gets cold and blustering outside, whenever I look through my window at 6 pm and see darkness outside, the number one thing that I always crave is travelling to a place where it’s summer and the days are long and sunny and bright. I dream. I daydream.

So, almost winter in Spain. Time to talk about holidays.

Have a look at these two sentences. Are they correct or incorrect?

1. Have a safe travel!
2. The trip by train took two hours.

Let’s find out!

Travel, Trip and  Journey: How to use them

TRAVEL

• As a verb: “travel” is normally used as a verb. It is used to refer to the general activity of moving from place to place

I travel to work by car

• As a noun: “travel” as a noun is normally uncountable

The pass allows unlimited travel on all public transport in the city.

As it’s uncountable, things such as “ I had a nice travel” are wrong

Note: although uncountable, sometimes “travel” can be used in the plural

This exhibition reflects scenes and inspiration from his travels at home and abroad.

The novel is based on her travels in Asia

More common collocations associated with the noun “travel” are

• Travel expenses
• Travel agency
• The travel industry
• Travel sickness
• A travel bag
• Air travel

JOURNEY

• “Journey” is also usually used as a noun. It means the time when you travel from one place to another. The emphasis is on the travelling itself, it does not refer to the time you stay there.

It was a long and difficult journey  through the mountains 
      I read during the train journey to work. 
      Did you have a good journey? 

 

TRIP

• “Trip” is used as a noun and it’s countable. A “trip” is when you go on a short journey, or a journey you do not usually make, and come back again. We use this when the emphasis is on where you are going or why you are going there. The time you stay there is important.

         It was my first trip to the States
I am going on a business trip
Was it a good trip? 

Let’s go back to our two sentences at the beginning of this post. Are they correct or incorrect?

1. Have a safe travel!
2. The trip by train took two hours.

They are incorrect.

1. “travel” is uncountable, you cannot use the indefinite article “a” with it. The correct sentence would be. “Have a safe journey”
2. It’s incorrect because the focus is only on the travelling itself, we are not interested in where you are going or what you are going to do there, only on the duration. The correct sentence would be: ” The journey by train took two hours”.

Ready for some exercises now?

Drag and drop the sentences in the right column