Is it worth it?

Posted by Pak Guru on April 24th, 2016 | 0 comments | collocation, EAP, grammar, IELTS, layak, Part 3, speaking, Task 2, vocabulary, writing

This post comes with a fun challenge. Continue reading or jump straight to the challenge!

Is it worth to spend large amounts of money on space exploration?

 This is an expression that doesn’t really have a nice translation in Bahasa Indonesia, (closest equivalent = layak) and so I seldom hear it from students. But it’s extremely common in spoken and written English, and so it’s one you should learn to use.
This is the correct collocation:

• Is it worth spending large amounts of money on space exploration?

Possible answers include..

• Yes, it’s (it is) worth it.
• Yes, it’s (it is) worth spending money on space exploration.
• No, it isn’t (it is not) worth it.
• No, it’s (it is) not worth it.
• No, it isn’t (is not) worth spending money on space exploration.

When you ask “Is it worth it?” you’re asking..

• Is it basically more advantageous than disadvantageous?
• Is the extra expense justified?
• Is the additional time investment justified?

And so we have the idiom “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right!” If you’re investing extra time and/or money into a job or task, then it would be a sin to put in less than 100% effort:

And now for the challenge. Can you think of 5 activities that require additional time, effort and expense but are still worth it? Comments below! 🙂