travel/trip/ journey
travel (uncountable noun) term used to refer to the act or activity of travelling.
travel (verb intransitive transitive) to go from one place to another. When meaning long distances, we usually use travel instead of trip. We also use this word when we talk about travelling for a reason such as work, etc.
- I love travelling – I’d love to travel around the world – Tomorrow I have to get up early. I’m travelling.
trip (countable noun) an excursion or a journey somewhere and back, especially for pleasure.
- We went on a boat trip to the island.
journey (countable noun) the act of travelling from one place and another. Here the focus is placed on talking about what happens between the beginning and ending of these points. For example, if going from Madrid to Paris on a train, you enjoyed it because it was quick, you had a good meal and a nice nap, you would say something like ‘your journey was nice’. But if you had bad weather, the food was horrible and the person on the seat next to you, kept dropping off, snoring almost all the way, you’d probably say that your ‘journey was horrible’.
Nice question José Antonio!
Basically, this is because you are using an indirect question (the type of structure we’d use when asking an unknown person for information or to do something.).
A direct question would be Where’s the bank?/Where is the bank? And an indirect question would use an indirect question phrase (Could you tell me) followed by a phrase without subject-verb inversion ( statement word order ). ‘Could you tell me where the bank is?`
Here are some other examples.
Do you mind telling me what the time is?
Could you tell me where Antony is?
The same happens with YES/NO indirect questions.
‘Do you know if Antonio has arrived?’ Instead of a direct question which would be ‘Has Antonio arrived?’
The possible reason behind that sense of awkwardness you feel is quite normal. You’re probably more used to using inversions for questions and just need some practice to get your tongue around a new structure. It’s only a matter of time.
Hope that was helpful!
I guess you are the only one person I can think of as being able to answer this question, so I am afraid I’m going to take some of your time. It is about English grammar. So, here I go, straight to the point. Which of these two questions should be the correct one: 1. “Excuse me, could you tell me where the library is?” or 2. “Excuse me, could you tell me where’s the library?”. Another example: “Excuse me, could you tell me what your name is?” or 2. “Excuse me, could you tell me what’s your name?”
I know the Theory!
But it sounds to me so awkward! That I even refuse to believe what I guess must be the correct answer!
Thanks in advance for your time!
Best wishes,
José