TRAVEL, TRIP, JOURNEY

Travel can be an uncountable noun (an incredible travel) or a verb. It is the general term (=word) to describe going from one place to another. Don’t use it to talk about a particular “viaje”.

Although it is uncountable, we can talk about someone's travels to refer to the journeys he makes (los viajes en general): Gulliver’s Travels.

Travel is often part of compound nouns (=sustantivos compuestos):

Travel documents, travel tickets,  travel agents, air travel, etc.

Journey is a noun. A journey is one single piece of travel, especially when the places are a long way apart. You make journeys when you travel from one place to another.

The journey from London to Newcastle by train can now be completed in under three hours.

A difficult journey across the mountains.

How long did your journey take?

Trip is a noun. A trip is an act of going from one place to another, and usually back again. It often involves (=supone, implica) more than one single journey. Its meaning includes the activity (business or pleasure) which is the reason for the journey.

. We make journeys usually, but we go on trips:

• I went on a day trip to France. We left at 6.30 in the morning and returned before midnight the same day.
• Her school organized a skiing trip to the Pyrinees.
• Where's Laurie? ~ He won't be in this week. He's gone on a business trip to Malaysia and Singapore.

• The trip went well. It was an old car, but we didn't break down in four weeks of travelling.
• A round-the-world trip.
• A boat trip.
• They all went away on a school trip.
• A five-minute trip by taxi.

Sometimes you can use either:

• Did you have a good journey?
• Did you have a good trip?

REMEMBER: the most common mistake is to say things like:

What a wonderful travel! Did you have a good travel?

JOB and WORK

Firstly, on a grammatical level, work is both a verb and a noun, whereas (=mientras que)  job is only a noun. Work is not countable (a work), job is (a great job).

Let’s look at their meanings now.

Work is an activity in which you use effort (esfuerzo) or energy, normally to achieve a particular aim or task, rather than for fun or enjoyment (para conseguir un objetivo más que por diversión). It is essentially the opposite of play. Generally (but not always), we work in order to earn money, and this is often how we use the verb; to describe what we do to earn money. For example:

I work for the BBC.

David works in a café.

In these examples, we do not know exactly what the person’s duties or responsibilities are. David works in a café, but we do not know if he cleans the tables or cooks the food.

So, in this sense, work has a very general meaning, whereas job is much more specific, and its most common meaning is the name for the work that you do to earn money. For example,

David has now got a new job. He is a cook in a small restaurant.

In this example, we now know exactly what David does because we know what his job is.

Although your job is the name for what you do to earn money, it can also refer to a specific task (tarea)that you have to do; a task that requires work and a task that you can specifically identify. For example,

I have a few jobs to do at home this weekend. I need to paint my bedroom, fix a broken door and cut the grass.

As a verb, work does have other meanings, such as, if you describe how a machine works, you explain how it functions, or operates. For example,

Can someone show me how the photocopier works? I don’t know how to use it.

Similarly, you can use it to say if the machine is functioning correctly. For example,

Don’t try to use that computer. It doesn’t work. We are waiting for the engineer to fix it.

To summarise, we can say that the word job refers to a particular employment role or position, such as cook, teacher or banker, whereas work refers in a more general way to activities that you do.

Interestingly, all jobs involve (suponen, requieren) work but doing work isn’t always part of a job. For example, someone can spend the weekend working in their garden, perhaps cutting the grass or planting new flowers. However, this is a free time activity, and so it is not his or her job. Work can be anything that requires effort, paid/unpaid, regular/done on one occasion.

Sometimes you can use either (cualquiera de los dos), with just a little difference in meaning:

It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.(Oficio/tarea)

It’s dirty work, but someone has to do it  (La labor, el trabajo en sí que se hace)

A final consideration: don’t worry too much about these two words. Just try to avoid (evitar) the usual mistakes:

What’s your job? My job is a teacher. >>> I’m a teacher. (Curiosamente, en la pregunta se usa, pero en la respuesta no. Si empiezas una frase My job is… puedes seguir describiendo cómo es, pero NO diciendo el nombre del trabajo).

It’s a very difficult work. Aunque tendría un matiz diferente según cuál eliges, habría que decir o bien it’s a difficult job o bien it’s difficult work.

She has two works. (Uncountable!: two jobs).

I’ve been working hard for the last few hours, so I think it’s time for me to take a break (un descanso). Fortunately, the work that I do in my job is very interesting, so although it is hard work, I don’t think I will look for another job! What about you? Are you a student or do you have a job? Whatever you do, is it hard work?

N.B. Much of this explanation was found on a BBC webpage:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/askaboutenglish/2009/03/090331_aae_work_page.shtml