English Vocabulary - WORTH

Hey guys, I'm Alex, thanks for clicking, and welcome to this user request lesson on

Worth. This was requested by somebody on my Facebook page, so here it is. So Worth basically

talks about the value of something, or it talks about the benefits of something. Let's

look at a couple of different sentences which use Worth and see if we can understand how

we use it in a sentence. So we have, "His suit is worth $400." So we know that $400

is a value, it's an amount. So when we're saying, "His suit is worth $400," it's

similar, and it's exactly like saying, "The value of his suit is $400." So here we're

talking about value. Okay, the second sentence also talks about value, and it's more of

a comedy, a comedic sentence more than anything. So, "This phone isn't worth $200." So,

for example, imagine you bought a new phone, and you know, you paid $200 for it, but your

phone is garbage. It doesn't work, it has many problems, you're always calling the

company to fix it. And you say, "I paid $200 for this phone. This phone is not worth $200.

The value of this phone should not be $200 because I have so many problems with it."

So here we're also talking about value, but we're saying, this is like negative

value, okay? The phone is not worth $200. Here, "It's worth it." It's not worth

it. We can talk about not only objects, like here we're talking about a suit, here we

are talking about a phone. We can also talk about a decision or an experience as being

worth it, as having value. So, for example, imagine that you go to the movie theater,

and you see a 3D movie, okay? For a 3D movie, normally at this moment in 2012, we're paying

about $15, okay? So, if you go to see some movies, and you see the 3D, and you think,

"Wow, this 3D is really excellent. It's really good." So you say, "Okay, it's

worth it." That the benefit, right, the benefit of the 3D provides more value for

your money, okay? So here, if I say, go to see Avatar, or a Pixar movie, or something

like that, it's worth it to pay $15, because you know the 3D is going to be very good.

However, if you see a movie where the 3D is not good, like Clash of the Titans, or The

Last Airbender, or something like this, where, you know, it's like, "Why am I wearing

these glasses?" There is no difference. So if there is no difference, and you pay $15

for your movie ticket, and your friend asks you, "Is it worth it? Is the benefit, is

there a benefit? Is it worth it to pay $15 for this movie?" Say, "No, just pay the

$12 or $10 for no 3D." Okay? So here we're talking about the benefits of 3D. Okay?

And we can also talk about a person as being worth it or not worth it. So if you're in

a relationship, and you know, if the person that your friend is with, you think that they

cause a lot of trouble for the person, you think that maybe, you know, they don't spend

time with them, or they treat them badly, or they don't show up to the movies when they're

supposed to be there, say, "This person is not worth it." You know, they are not giving

you a lot of benefit for your effort. So you're trying, and you're trying, and you're trying,

but you're not getting anything in return. We say, "He's not worth it," or, "She's

not worth it." "Not worth," when we say "it," here we mean the effort, what you're trying

to do. Okay? All right, guys. So if you want to test your understanding of worth, just

check out the quiz on www.engvid.com. It's worth it. Good luck, and take care.