people + trip questions

[OlgaD]

Hello again!

1. I've been trying to differ those two words:

えんそく
りょこう

and I've found it quite hard.

I've tried to find the differences and... Here's what I've found. Please correct me if I'm wrong:

If I want to say TO TRAVEL, I should use りょこうする, right? えんそくする isn't correct?

But when it comes to the meaning of the nouns えんそく and りょこう... I'm not really sure when Japanese people use them. I even can't make up examples... Please help!

2. Here's my second question. How to differ

民族 (minzoku)
たみ
国民 (kokumin)
ひとたち
人 (hito)
皆 (minna)
人々(hitobito)
人だかり (hitodakari)
おおぜい ?

Here's what I've found. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

民族 minzoku means people of a certain area. It's literally the characters nation + tribe. I would think of it as meaning "the natives." So... "Japanese natives" or "natives of Japan" is 日本の民族"? It sounds quite... Strange to me.

I've thought that たみ or 国民 means nation... But... I've found those two examples 英国人は偉大な国民だ。 (The English are a great nation) AND 私は札幌の市民です。 (I am a citizen of Sapporo).

So... 国民 is NATION but たみ means CITIZENS?

ひとたち hitotachi is literally just multiple persons... but I still don't know why not just 人々?

人 hito means person OR people, depending on context, and it can mean this because in Japanese most of the time speakers do not differentiate between one person and five people

皆 minna - meaning EVERYONE, EVERYBODY, like in"hello, everyone!" - 皆さんこんにちは

人々 refers more to words meaning "everyone" or "each person" depending on context. It's a large group of people--much larger than hitotachi. Could I think of hitobito as a large crowd, while hitotachi a group? But I've thought that crowd is 人だかり or おおぜい... What's the difference?

人だかり and おおぜい... I've found just CROWD, but there must be a difference, right?

Well... Could You please explain it to me more clearly, with examples? I would be grateful!

THANK YOU!

[NileCat]

1.
遠足（えんそく）　class trip, excursion
旅行（りょこう）　travel, journey

2.

民族（みんぞく） ethnic group
民（たみ）→　[archaic] ordinary people
国民（こくみん）nation
市民（しみん） citizen

人　／　人たち　／　人々
person ／persons　／ people
人たち sounds more casual than 人々.

人だかり　[noun] crowd
大勢（おおぜい）usually used as an adjective with －の.
As a noun, it means a large number of people


You would find this site very helpful.
http://www.alc.co.jp/index.html

[OlgaD]

Thank You Nile Cat!