Worthwhile

Worthwhile

Today I’m going to show you the word “worthwhile.” It’s a single word—it’s kind of hard to say, “worthwhile.” And it’s an adjective, so you use it to modify a noun, a thing.

Something is “worthwhile” if it’s worth the time, money, or effort that it costs you. Traveling and moving around is something that costs you time, money, and effort. We talked about Ikea , the furniture store. If there’s an Ikea near you, chances are it’s a big, big store on the outskirts of town. It takes a while to get there. You park in an enormous parking lot. And there’s no such thing as a quick trip into Ikea. The stores are laid out so you have to walk through the entire store no matter what .

So imagine you need a few hangers for your closet. I like the wooden hangers they have at Ikea. So imagine you go to Ikea, and three and a half hours later you get home with your new hangers. Was that trip worthwhile? Was that a worthwhile trip? You got a package of hangers but it took all afternoon.

I would say that trip was not worthwhile. That trip to Ikea was not worth the time, effort, and gas money, just to get a few hangers.

With a little bit of planning, you can make something worthwhile. If you’re contemplating a trip to Ikea, you can ask yourself, “What can I do to make this trip worthwhile?” What can you do to make it so that this trip is worth the time, effort, and money?

Is there another store near Ikea that you also need to go to? Can you combine the trip with another errand? That might make the travel time worthwhile. Or, do you need a few things at Ikea? Can you wait until you have to get a few things there? That could also make the trip worthwhile.

At work, you might say, “We need to make this meeting worthwhile.” If you’re going to coordinate schedules, reserve a room, take up an hour of people’s time…it can’t be a waste. It should be worth the time and effort. The meeting should be worthwhile.

The cost in those examples was time and effort. If you own a home, though, you’re constantly asking whether something is worthwhile. Some repairs, you just have to do. But others are optional. And with those, you have to balance the cost of a repair with what you get in return. Does the repair lower your utility bills? Does the repair or improvement increase the value of your house? Will it simply be for your enjoyment? All of those questions can help you decide whether a repair or an improvement is worthwhile.

I owned an apartment in Chicago. Some of the things I did were worthwhile; some were not. When I moved in, I installed some lights on the wall in the living room. They were kind of expensive, but I liked the look of them, at least when they were in the store! But in the end, I never used those lights. That was not a worthwhile project. It cost money, but I really didn’t even use those lights very much. It wasn’t worthwhile.

But here’s one that was worthwhile. Before I moved in, when the apartment was totally empty, I had the hardwood floors resurfaced. That was a worthwhile project. It cost money—it cost a lot of money. But the floors were in bad shape when I bought the apartment.

And there are only two times you can resurface the floors if you have 100 percent hardwood floors: that’s before you move in, or after you move out. I decided to do it before I moved in. The floors were beautiful the whole time I lived there and they definitely helped the value when I sold it. That was a worthwhile project.

Businesses always have to weigh the cost and benefit of a potential investment. Is this a worthwhile investment? That means, will the time, money, and effort be rewarded in the future?

A lot of companies now are grappling with artificial intelligence. You can’t just tell people to start using ChatGPT . You have to invest in training models, changing systems, integrating systems, training people, checking the quality. AI models can save time. But they also cost a lot upfront. So businesses are wondering: is this a worthwhile investment?

You can also say, “Is it worthwhile to…” and then put an activity. Climate change and extreme weather are affecting agriculture. And agriculture is an industry with long cycles. If you grow oranges in Brazil, you can’t install a machine that makes more oranges next year. The machine is a tree, and a new orange tree has to grow for years before it bears any fruit.

So farmers are asking, “Is it worthwhile to grow new trees?” That means, will my effort be rewarded? In the future, will I get a benefit that makes the cost in time, effort, and money worth it?

See you next time!

And that’s all for us here at Plain English. Is it worthwhile to visit PlainEnglish.com/686? I say it is. It is worthwhile because it’s not much effort. And from there, you can get the transcript of today’s lesson, take a quiz—that’s free—take a quiz about today’s story. And if you’re a Starter or Plus+ member, you can do the exercises, write your own examples with “worthwhile” and get feedback from me.

So PlainEnglish.com/686 is the full lesson today.

We’ve got a new story on Thursday; it’s about dollar stores. And then next week, we’re starting our summer series called “Summer Break.” I’m going to give you a mental break, and we’ll spend July and August talking about different parts of American life and culture.

We’re going to start, July 1 and July 4 by looking at east coast living and west coast living. What are the pros and cons of living in the east versus the west? Because they really are different cultures.

That’s starting in July, and we’ll have new topics like that every week for the months of July and August.

That’s all for today. See you next time.