Would anyone tell me the difference between the words Tour and Travel as verbs?
@qianlizhifeng (468)
China
April 12, 2011 9:10am CST
Here is a test training for a junoir middle school students in China:
A:When did she tour / travel the USA? B:Three years ago.
They choose the word "tour" as right answer,as the dialouge has took place in the text book .But I am still puzzled with the difference between the two words when they are used as verbs .How can I use the suitale one? Thanks!
4 responses
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
12 Apr 11
'To tour' means to travel from place to place in a certain country or area. 'To travel' normally means to make a single journey and is generally followed by 'to'. Additionally, 'tour' generally implies for pleasure (but can also apply to a stage presentation), 'travel' is more often used in a business context. I agree that the use of the two words is somewhat complicated. They are NOT identical but working out which one to use in which context is not easy to define!
In your example above, 'tour' would be the correct choice. In most English-speaking minds, to say: "When did she travel the USA?" would usually raise some questions like "What was she travelling in?" (meaning what was she selling, not by what means of transport!) To 'travel in pharmaceuticals' means that one goes from place to place selling pharmaceuticals.
'Tour' can mean 'for pleasure' ('John and Beverly spent the summer touring the art galleries of France and Germany') and always implies going from one place to another, but it can also apply to a theatre production ('The Chinese National Circus toured Europe in October and the United States in November').
It would be 'good English' to say 'For their summer tour of the European art galleries, John and Beverley travelled first to Paris and then to Amsterdam'. 'Travel' can thus be seen to apply mainly to a journey from A to B while 'tour' is less specific.
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
12 Apr 11
"'To travel' normally means to make a single journey and is generally followed by 'to'."
I re-read this and realised that there are several prepositions which can be associated with 'travel'.
Usually, the word 'travel', whenever it is used in an 'A to B' sense, implies a destination rather than a starting point. "I travelled from London Stansted" implies that we already know where the person arrived or is going to arrive. "I travelled by bus" (or "in an aeroplane" or "on horseback") is not concerned with where but how. "In my early years I used to travel in men's clothing" is a classic source of English jokes because, although it really means that the person was going from place to place selling men's clothing (as a salesman), it also means that the person used to wear men's clothing whilst travelling (and begs the implication that he no longer does!)
@maximax8 (31042)
• United Kingdom
16 May 11
The correct ways of saying it would be:
When did she tour the USA? and When did she travel to the USA? Tour and travel are very similar words. I went like to tour in an indentendent way. I love to travel to different countries. She went to the USA three years ago and She did a tour of the USA three years ago.
@marguicha (230365)
• Chile
16 May 11
I don´t agree with any of the answers they gave you. To travel is to go anywhere from one place to the other. To tour is to travel to several places as in a round trip going to several places. The USA is used in your sentence as one place ( a country). If it meant several places whithin a country for instance, I´d put "she toured through all the east part of the US". Touring or travelling have nothing to do necessarilly with pleasure or not. Thus, singers toyur a country or countries for work whereas I can travel to China or tour through China going to different places.
