Palabras fciles de confundir: travel, trip, journey, voyage

Autor: Alexandra Vraciu |

En el mundo de los negocios se habla a menudo de viajes: hacer un viaje de negocios, recibir a un
cliente que est de viaje, organizar un viaje para el jefe, etc. En mis clases como profesora in
company he notado una cierta confunsin entre los trminos travel, trip, journey y voyage que
me gustaria aclarar en la leccin de hoy.
1. Travel
La palabra travel se utiliza sobretodo como verbo:
He travels to Paris monthly.
Cuando se utiliza como nombre, se encuentra sobretodo en sustantivos compuestos como travel
agency, travel agent, air travel, travel documents, travel insurance, travel expenses, etc.
Como sustantivo, se puede utilizar tambin solo, pero con un significado muy general equivalente
a los viajes. En este caso, se trata de un sustantivo incontable (sin plural):
I like travel, but its exhausting sometimes.
Business travel never really appealed to me.
2. Trip
Se trata de un sustantivo contable (que tiene forma de singular y de plural). Corresponde al
trmino viaje en castellano, es decir, el hecho de ir a un sitio y pasar un tiempo all:
I have recently been on a trip to London. (En este caso no se puede decir: I have recently been on
a travel to London)
Trip puede formar parte de nombres compuestos como day trip, round trip (viaje de ida y
vuelta), business trip.
Fijaros tambin que decimos to go on a (business / day / round) trip
3. Journey
Se trata de un sustantivo contable y de un posible false friend para los castellano hablantes.
Corresponde a trayecto en castellano, es decir el hecho de ir de un sitio a otro, sin informacin
sobre el tiempo que pasamos en nuestro destino:
Did you have a nice journey?
Have a safe journey?
How long does the journey to Dubai take?
Fijaos que decimos to make a journey:
He makes the journey to Rome three times a year.
4. Voyage
Aunqu etimolgicamente lo ms proximo a la palabra castellana viaje, voyage en ingls es un
sustantivo arcaico, que se utiliza unicamente para hablar de travesas por mar:
The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage.

The explanations should help clarify the meaning and use of vocabulary related
to travel.

Travel

The word 'travel' is used to talk about going from one place to
another.
It can be a verb, a noun or an adjective :

Verb :

Paul travels a lot in his job.

Noun :

Travel nowadays is faster than before.

Adjective : There is a travel agency beside the bank.

The word trip is used to talk about a short journey somewhere for
a purpose, business or pleasure.
Trip

For our wedding anniversary, we went on a trip to Venice.

My boss is often away on business trips.

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

A journey is the distance covered when travelling from one place

to
another.
'Journey' can refer to a long distance or a short regular one.
Journey

The journey was long and tiring. It took us 5 hours to get

there.

Did you have a good journey? Yes, it was quite pleasant.

How long is your journey to work? Just about 20 minutes.

A tour is a journey during which several places are visited,

especially
on
a
holiday.
'Tour' can be a noun or a verb.
Tour

Voyage

Noun : We went on a tour of Italy.

Verb : We toured the north of India.

A voyage is a long journey by sea or in space.

Before the 20th century, long sea voyages were common.

A spacecraft will take you on a voyage through space.