The English nouns trip, journey, travel, voyage

—   Hello, boys and girls! My name is James. This is Lee.

—   And my name is Martin.

—   Welcome to our lesson!

—   Today we would like to tell you one interesting story.

—   Last Saturday we decided to go to the Zoo near my house.

—   We wanted to look at the animals.

—   Martin, Lee and I also wanted to feed them.

—   The three of us really like feeding animals.

—   Yeah! That’s right! It helps us to uplift our spirits.

—   Let’s continue our story.

—   When we came to the Zoo, we saw two fellows.

—   They were talking about something.

—   Listen to their conversation.

—   This will help you to guess the topic of our lesson today.

—   Bobby, look! This zebra is so beautiful and cute.

—   Yeah, Ryan! But I think that all animals in this Zoo are very sweet and lovely.

—   Yes, they are adorable. But last year my parents and I went on a voyage to Turkey. There we visited the local Zoo and…

—   Wow, it’s so cool! Oh, I’m sorry I interrupted you. Ryan, please, continue your story.

—   Thank you, Bobby! All right… There were lots of different animals: elephants, lions, tigers, bears, pandas and so on. But there were no zebras.

—   Oh, I see. How did you go there?

—   We went on our voyage by car. My dad is a journey agent, so he arranged this voyage for us.

—   Oh, I’m so jealous. I want to go on a voyage too!

—   Bobby, please, don’t be! Next time I will ask my parents to take you with us.

—   Oh, thank you, Ryan! You’re the best!

—   The fellows made some mistakes in their speech.

—   Let’s look through the dialogue once again and correct them.

In this dialogue we need to use the word “trip” instead of “voyage” and the word “travel” instead of “journey”. And we will explain you why in a few minutes.

As you can understand, today in the lesson we will:

·        discuss what the English nouns “trip”, “journey”, “travel” and “voyage” have in common;

And

·        talk about the difference between them.

—   To tell the truth, we weren’t really surprised that the fellows used the words “voyage” and “journey” where we cannot use them.

—   Yeah! There’s nothing weird about that, because people often confuse the nouns “trip”, “journey”, “travel” and “voyage”.

—   That’s why today Martin, James and I will tell you about the difference between these words.

—   But first of all, let’s discuss what the nouns “trip”, “journey”, “travel” and “voyage” have in common.

In the English language when we want to talk about travelling, we can use the nouns “trip”, “journey”, “travel” and “voyage”.

All these words can be translated as “путешествие”.

But remember! They are not the same. We need to use all of them in different situations.

So, let’s talk about the difference between the words “trip”, “journey”, “travel” and “voyage”.

The first word is “trip”.

It can be translated as “поездка, путешествие, экскурсия, рейс”.

“Trip” is a countable noun and describes the whole process of going somewhere and coming back.

For example:

Marry, let’s go on a trip to the mountains this spring!

Or

During our holiday we took a boat trip to the islands. 

The noun “trip” usually refers to a journey which takes a short time or covers a short distance.

For example:

Last year my wife Kate and I went on a day trip to the jungle.

Or

Kyle and Larry, let’s go on a short trip to Italy! 

The word “trip” can also be used with an adjective to describe the type of trip.

For example:

Tyler and Fiona went on a honeymoon trip to Ireland.

Or

My dear friends, have a safe trip!

We can also use the word “trip” to talk about the process of going somewhere during the holidays.

For example:

Guys, we are going on a camping trip in two hours, so, please, go to your rooms and pack your things!

Or

Boys and girls, raise your hands if you want to go on a holiday trip!

The noun “trip” is used to talk about travelling somewhere because of work or study.

For example:

Harry and Molly went on a business trip two weeks ago.

Or

Mrs. Donovan went on a school trip with her pupils yesterday.

Pay attention! The word “trip” cannot be used to talk about difficult and exhausting travelling. In this case, you should use the words “expedition” or “voyage”.

Let’s compare the following two sentences:

The first sentence:

Felix and Catherine went on an exhausting trip across the Atlantic Ocean.

And the second sentence:

Felix and Catherine went on an exhausting voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

(It’s clear from these sentences that we are talking about difficult and exhausting travelling. That’s why we need to use the word “voyage”. It means that the 2^nd sentence is correct and the 1^st is incorrect).

Remember! It’s right to say: “to take a trip”, but “to make a journey”.

For example:

Robert decided to take a fishing trip with his parents.

Or

Paul still uses his car, but now he makes fewer journeys.

The following word is “journey”.

The word “journey” is translated as “путешествие, поездка, рейс, вояж”.

“Journey” is a countable noun. The meaning of this word is “to move from one place to another, especially in a vehicle”. It’s a single piece of travel.

Let’s look at the examples:

Alex was in Egypt in 2015 and he came back there this year. So, he has had two journeys to Egypt.

Or

Oliver and Fred make a 300-mile journey by bike.

We use the noun “journey” to describe regular visits to some places such as school or work. Here we are talking about short-distance travels.

For instance:

Regan, how long does your journey to work take?

Or

Kids, did you have a good journey to school?

When we talk about the word “journey”, we need to be careful with its plural form. It’s correct to write “journeys” which ends with “EYS” instead of “journies” which ends with “IES”.

Now let’s look at the most popular expressions with the word “journey”.

1. A car/ plane/ bus journey

2. To make a journey

3. To go on a journey

4. To start a journey

5. To set off on a journey

For instance:

My best friends Rick and Dan set off on a journey early in the morning.

Or

Christopher started his journey on Monday.

The following word is “travel”.

The word “travel” can be both a verb and a noun.

If it’s a verb, it means “to go from one place to another, especially over a long distance, in a plane, train, car and so on”.

If this word is a noun, it means “the activity of traveling, usually over a long distance”.

“Travel” is used to talk about the process of going somewhere in general.

For instance:

World travel gave Wendy a new perspective.

(In this sentence the word “travel” is a noun).

Or

Many people travel to work by train.

(Here the word “travel” is a verb).

“Travel” can also be used as a part of compound nouns.

For instance:

Air travel was affected by the storm.

Hillary has an obsessive interest in space travel.

Or

Nick, why do you think that time travel is possible?

And the last word is “voyage”.

“Voyage” is a countable noun. We use it to describe a long sea journey, but it’s also sometimes used to describe journeys in space.

For example:

Long time ago a voyage around the world often took five or six years.

Or

Marcus, when are you going to make a voyage? 

Now let’s look at the most popular expressions with the word “voyage”.

1. a voyage of discovery

2. a maiden voyage

3. a voyage by boat

4. a voyage into space

5. to go on a voyage

6. to make a voyage

7. to set out on a voyage

For instance:

Bradley, I don’t want to go on a voyage alone!

Or

It was my maiden voyage. I really liked it!

—   Now you know what the nouns “trip”, “journey”, “travel” and “voyage” have in common.

—   We’ve also talked about the difference between them.

—   That’s all for today.

—   We hope you liked the lesson.

—   See you soon.