how to say “worthwhile” in Hebrew

Hebrew has a few ways of saying worthwhile, depending on what you mean.

To use worthwhile in a general sense, as one would say in English, it’s worth it, the word is כְּדַאי ( ). It’s not an adjective, but a modal verb, much like אֶפְשָׁר ( ) – it’s possible.

For example:

It’s worth it to travel out of the city from time to time.

This is by far the most common way of saying worthwhile in Hebrew.

But to use worthwhile to describe something specific, we use a different word. It’s got the same spelling as כְּדַאי ( ) in terms of consonants, but the vowels are different: כְּדָאִי ( ). 

It’ll make more sense in context:

לִלְמוֹד לִשְׂחוֹת זֶה מַאֲמָץ כְּדָאִי.

Learning to swim is a worthwhile effort.

Another word that means worthwhile in both the general sense and when describing something in particular, is מִשְׁתַּלֵּם ( ). Its root is שׁ.ל.מ (sh.l.m), the same as that of peace and payment. משתלם means, literally, something that pays off.

For example:

It’s worth it to buy tickets early.

and

I finally saw a new car at a worthwhile price.

משתלם is an adjective deriving from the reflexive-intensive הִתְפַּעֵל verb form.