Word of the Week
When do you go on a trip and when do you go on a journey and what’s the difference between the two?
Look at these two sentences:
1. We had a great trip. We did lots of sightseeing and ate lots of wonderful food.
2. We had a great holiday but the return journey was awful.
In sentence one, the TRIP refers to the holiday itself - the time spent in a different place, seeing and doing different things.
In sentence two, the JOURNEY is referring to the experience of getting from one place to another. Maybe it was ‘awful’ because it was too long, or the plane was delayed, or the train was overcrowded.
Here are some more examples using JOURNEY:
My journey to work takes 3 hours every days.
Have a safe journey!
Did you have a tiring journey?
In these examples we are talking about the method of movement from one place to another which could be on foot, by bicycle, car, bus, train or any other form of transport.
You can use a variety of verbs with journey: make / start / set out on / set off on + journey
For example;
I make the journey from London to Madrid twice a month.
I always start the journey by car and finish by train.
I usually set out / set off (start) on my journey before the rush hour.
Adjectives that are commonly used with JOURNEY include: arduous / epic / gruelling / hazardous / long / short
*JOURNEY can also have a more literary meaning to describe a process of changing and developing over a period of time. Eg, a spiritual journey
**JOURNEY can also be used as a verb but only in a very formal sense. Eg, they journeyed to the countryside every summer.
