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I want to say that something is worth it, the subject is mentioned in the previous sentence, so I want to you just write "it", so i won´t repeat the same subject in two consecutive sentences, but generally the meaning I aim for is "it is worth the effort".

My question is which of these forms are acceptable:

  • "It is worth it" (I think this is ok)
  • "It is well worth it" (I wonder whether this is ok or not, i feel like "well worth" needs some object like "it is well worth your time")
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    You're fine to use either one. Just consider that "well" adds a nice bit of emphasis to the phrase. If you're particularly impressed with something/heartily recommending something, go with "well worth it", otherwise "worth it" will do.
    – JMB
    Mar 14, 2015 at 16:51
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    It's not immediately obvious to me why, but whereas you can substitute some other "intensifiers" (e.g. - "It's definitely worth it"), it's not really idiomatic to say "It's very worth it". Well worth it is something of a "fixed form".
    – FumbleFingers
    Mar 14, 2015 at 18:41
  • You might like to post your comments as answers, @JMB/@FumbleFingers. I was going to post on, but you guys summed it up pretty neatly.
    – HarryCBurn
    Mar 14, 2015 at 20:47
  • @FumbleFingers I would add that "It's very much worth it" sounds more idiomatic to me (still somewhat uncommon, though), but it's also not obvious to me why.
    – user428517
    Mar 17, 2015 at 21:02
  • @sgroves: I think "It's very much worth it" only really works when the context at least implies the speaker is refuting someone else's position that something is hardly worth it at all. But consider, for example, "It's very much a matter of luck". You can't possibly get away with just very there, and plain much isn't much better. Which suggests that very much has its own "rules of engagement", as it were.
    – FumbleFingers
    Mar 17, 2015 at 21:17

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Both those forms are correct.

What part of speech the word "worth" is a matter for some debate (https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/15982/what-is-the-lexical-class-of-the-word-worth-when-used-in-a-sentence-like-is-t), but you can make the case that it's a preposition, and that's why we use well with it for emphasis as we do with other prepositions, e.g. "Put the bag well under the seat in front of you", "The plane was well over China when the engine trouble started".

If you just want to say "worth it" without being more specific, you might also consider using worthwhile.

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