Vacations are only worth/worthy if you take pleasure from them.
What's the correct choice? And why?
I would use worthwhile, actually.
Worth is a noun, approximately synonymous with value, so it doesn't fit there. Worthy is the correct part of speech (an adjective), but I don't think it means what you want to say. Worthy means 'deserving (of)', whereas 'worthwhile' means 'worth the effort/money/etc spent on'.
You are not (I think) saying that vacations are deserving of something, but that they are worth doing.
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Is worth really used as a noun? For instance in your sentence they are worth doing? – yo' Sep 1 '15 at 15:40
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I don't think it's a noun I think it's an adjective, the slide is not a worth slide. But the slide is worth it (witch is just slang for worthwhile) to ride. so the noun is the slide, and the adjective is "worth" how much worth it has to ride it would be described by the "worth" (just like all adjectives,) therefore an adjective. I don't know if this makes sense or even if it's true so please provide feedback. – Sam Harrington Sep 1 '15 at 16:55
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1But whether or not it makes sense I think the main point there is that 'worth it' is just slang for worthwhile. Again though I might be wrong there – Sam Harrington Sep 1 '15 at 17:02
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3@Sam - worth it could be used in the O.P.'s sentence, too: Vacations are only worth it if you take pleasure from them. – J.R.♦ Sep 1 '15 at 17:50
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