I found in an English learners’ textbook a sentence which goes, “Many people helped me on my journey.” That’s no problem. That makes sense to me. What about “in my journey?” Both seem to be okay. However, Google Ngram Viewer says “in my journey” is used a lot more often (link). Then comes up a question. This extract is from a English textbook for Japanese high school students at a lower intermediate or beginner level. Then why “on my journey” rather than “in my journey?” I wonder if “on” is preferred in this context?
Meaning in Context – In My Journey vs. On My Journey Differences
meaningmeaning-in-contextword-choiceword-usage
Related Solutions
These three words can be synonyms, but have slightly different connotations.
First, travel is usually a verb...
I will travel to Washington DC.
...but not always. In common speech (at least as far as I am familiar), when used as a noun, it is used in its plural form:
How were your travels?
Compared to the substantially equivalent sentences:
How was your trip?
How was your journey?
One could also ask How was your travel?, but it this would have a more specific meaning, for instance, "How was your flight from New York to L.A.?" as opposed to "How was your entire journey, and the time you spent in L.A.?"
Trip and journey are more closely interchangeable, and vary mostly in duration, distance, and formality.
A trip can be a short journey. One can take a trip to the store, but it would be unusual (except in poetic exaggeration) to take a journey to the store
A journey would often imply a longer (in terms of time and/or distance) trip, perhaps to multiple destinations, or with a greater sense of unknown. A journey may not be fully planned out ahead of time.
A business conference to Seattle would probably be described as a trip, whereas a family vacation road-trip from Nebraska, through the Colorado Rockies, camping in Nevada, then stopping in Las Vegas and returning through Oklahoma and Kansas, might be described as a journey.
Often, in colloquial English (at least in the U.S.), trip is far more commonly used than journey, even when describing long/epic travels.
Both trip and journey can also be verbs, but when used as verbs they are not interchangeable. To journey is to engage in the act of journeying:
We journeyed to the Grand Canyon.
However to trip is to cause someone to stumble or lose their balance.
She tripped the thief with her cane.
I tripped over the dog.
To trip up has the additional connotation of causing someone to blunder:
The reporter tripped up the senator.
There are also some additional cases where trip and journey cannot be interchanged in some common expressions:
- A guilt trip
- A high brought on by recreational drugs can be called a "trip."
- Trippy -- slang; reminiscent of the "trip" (high) brought on by recreational drugs; especially LSD
Based on your provaided details, could be the next:
- In = inside
- On = over, about
Further information: http://www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-in-and-on/
Best Answer
Concerning prevalence of use, you made a little mistake in Ngram: You looked for "in my journey, on my journeys". Using only the singular, we see a quite different usage curve.
More to the core of the question:
The noun 'journey' is also used metaphorically. "In my journey to become a better programmer, many people helped me."
Here, 'on' is slightly off.
On the other hand, if 'journey' refers to an actual, physical journey, at least in the singular 'on' will be the better choice, as it (loosely) describes an event, even if that event may stretch over a longer period of time.