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I want to figure out the reason as to why we can't say How was your travel? Some say that's because travel as a noun is rarely used and when it's used it should be in plural so does that mean we could ask - How were your travels ? instead? Then here comes another question - How is it possible for uncountable noun to be used in plural form? If the sole "travel"(n) is considered to have a general meaning then would it be right to form the same question by using the compound form - How was your business travel? or where did you go on your business travel?

As you've noticed, I'm going over one type of question because I want to dive more in a sense than sort of grammar trivials. My aim is to know the key thing - the connotation travel owns itself as a noun which makes it unable to be used interchangeably with trip in this perspective. In my opinion there has to be a reasonable explanation about why travel doesn't fit in with the above question. Hope I could get it across what I'm trying to say and get decent answers with a logical approach.

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Your question makes some wrong assumptions.

These would all be idiomatic:

How was your|the trip? your journey, the things that happened to you along the way

How was the|your travel? the conditions of the transport itself, the roads, the trains, etc

Tell me about your travels. places you've been and things you've seen throughout your life or on an extended trip

Your travel will be fully reimbursed. the costs of traveling

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  • so would it be incoorect to ask someone about the process of transport, was that tiring , whether it was safe or not, smooth or bumpy, by asking "how was your travel?"
    – Cavid Hummatov
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 15:57
  • I heard you visited the area hit by the earthquake. How was the travel? Were the roads open? is probably how I'd phrase it. "Smooth, bumpy" shade into the traveler's subjective experience. Questions asking about the travel are looking for facts. We traveled by off-road-vehicle and part of the way on foot.
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 17:23
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As far as: "there has to be a reasonable explanation about why travel doesn't fit in with the above question," the only explanation is that for each word there are many other synonyms and speakers simply just prefer one over the other in certain contexts. It's the same in your own language. So in the poem by Byron: 'she walks in beauty like the night', there is no reason why 'beauty' sounds better if replaced with pulchritude or prettiness. It's just because speakers prefer certain synonyms over others.

Let me also correct some of your other sentences:

Then here comes another question ["here's another question", is better]- How is it possible for [an] uncountable noun to be used in plural form? If the sole [singular] "travel"(n) is considered to have a general meaning then would it be right to form the same question by using the compound form - How was your business travel? [trip] or where did you go on your business travel? [trip]

As you've noticed, I'm going over one type of question because I want to dive more in a sense than sort of grammar trivials. [I want to go deep into grammar] My aim is to know the key thing - the connotation travel owns [own is wrong here, but I don't know what you mean] itself as a noun which makes it unable to be used interchangeably with trip in this perspective. In my opinion there has to be a reasonable explanation about [as to] why travel doesn't fit in [delete in] with the above question. Hope I could get it [delete it] across what I'm trying to say and get decent answers with a logical approach. [decent and logical answers]

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  • speaker prefers one over the other, the reason is euphony, the pleasant sound that certain words produce, but it doesn't mean that the speaker shouldn't necessarily use the other synonyms interchangeably. if you can replace the noun "education" with "schooling" in ; Homework is important in the education of children , then why not to do the same for "travel - journey" if they both have exactly the same connotation? How was your journey/travel? Here the thing is not a preference of euphony , or contextual relationship, but the difference of implication in the meanings, I believe.
    – Cavid Hummatov
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 9:54
  • In some cases speakers accept two synonyms to be used without any change in the eloquence of the expression, other times they don't. So 'set' and 'group' are often equally eloquent but 'group' and 'agglomeration', although synonyms, quite often 'agglomeration' is much less eloquent.
    – bobsmith76
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 19:34
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I want to figure out the reason as to why we can't say How was your travel?

Trip and travel tend to refer to different things.

To travel means to move from point A to B in such a manner that A) you are prepared to be away from home for some time and B) it is a significant expense or expenditure of effort or resources.

A trip is an event where you travel from point A to B, stay at B a while, possibly travel to additional destinations C, D, E, etc., and then travel back. Trips can be short and don't automatically imply you will be gone for more than a day, and don't automatically imply they will consume significant resources.

Travel is more about the process of moving from point A to B (e.g. "I will travel by train"), whereas a trip is more concerned with your destinations and what you are doing at them (e.g. "I am taking a trip to Italy.").

That being said you can force things to work the other way with either word: "I took a trip on a train" versus "I traveled on a train" and "I traveled to Italy for vacation" versus "I took a trip to Italy for vacation." A rich person may say "I took a trip on the other side of the world" because it does not represent a significant effort or major use of resources for him/her. A kid may say "I traveled to the other side of town on my bike."

But you cannot say something like "I took a travel to Italy" and make sense, or "I tripped to Italy" and make sense.

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