2010/04/19

「worth, worthy, worthwhile」の違いは何?

"Why have you put another picture of a banana here, Nick?" you may be asking.

I know someone who hates bananas. I asked her if she had ever eaten a Sembikiya banana. I had never eaten one, but theoretically, they should have some of the best bananas in Japan.
  • theoretically 理論上{りろんじょ う}は、名目上{めいもく じょう}は、理論的{りろんてき}に言えば (definition from Eijiro on the Web)
I asked her if she would be willing to try a Sembikiya banana. She said yes, so today we ate Sembikiya bananas as an experiment.

Bravely, she ate one quarter of a banana without making too many strange faces. She didn't want any more, though.

Of course it tasted pretty good, since it's from Sembikiya. I prefer green bananas, and these were slightly green. I was happy about that.

However, I didn't think it was worth it. <- "worth" is a preposition! I learned something!
  • It wasn't quite worth it, was it? (definition from Eijiro on the Web)
    そんな価値はなかったね?
They aren't worth 210円 each, though. <- see? "210円" is a noun, and "worth" is a preposition...

Doing the experiment was worthwhile, though. <- "worthwhile" is an adjective
  • worthwhile 【形】やりがいのある、値打ちのある、価値{かち}のある、無駄{むだ}ではない (definition from Eijiro on the Web)
The experiment was worthy to try. <- Maybe this is ok, but... I never say "worthy"...
  • worthy ~に値する、~するに足りる (definition from Eijiro on the Web)
The experiment was worth trying. <- Ah... this is much more natural for me.

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