に足る / に足りる|にたる / にたりる
Indicates that something is worth doing or has enough merit to justify an action, e.g. 'worthy of trust', 'worth watching'. It is typically used before a noun to describe a person or thing as deserving of that action.
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A formal, literary expression found mainly in writing, reviews, speeches and evaluative commentary. It commonly pairs with verbs of evaluation or attitude such as 信頼する, 尊敬する and 見る. Compared with に値する, it stresses that something meets the standard needed to justify the action.
Learners sometimes use に足る in casual conversation, where it sounds stiff; everyday speech would use 価値がある or similar phrasing.
Note that the negative に足りない often means 'trivial, not worth bothering about', as in 取るに足りない, rather than simply 'insufficient'.
Do not attach に足る to adjectives; it follows a verb in dictionary form or a する-noun.
- に値するN1に値する only means 'worthy of / deserving', focusing on an objective judgment of something's value, and typically attaches to evaluative nouns such as 称賛 or 注目; in the 'worthy of' sense it is interchangeable with に足る, but it has no 'sufficient / conditions fully met' meaning.
- に足りないN1に足りない is the negative form of this pattern, meaning 'not worth / not sufficient' with a dismissive tone; the idiom 取るに足りない means 'trivial, insignificant'. The two attach the same way and both lean literary, but their meanings are exact opposites, so they cannot be swapped.
- にたえる / にたえないN1にたえる can also mean 'worthy of', but with the nuance of withstanding scrutiny, as in 鑑賞にたえる. Its negative にたえない means 'too awful to look at' or 'grateful beyond words' — uses that に足る does not have.
- にあたらないN1にあたらない is a negative expression saying that a reaction (surprise, worry, criticism, praise, etc.) is unnecessary or overdone, while に足る is an affirmative evaluation that something is worthy of or sufficient for an action, often used attributively. The two cannot be swapped.
- にかたくないN1にかたくない means 'not hard to (imagine, understand)' and attaches only to conjecture-type words such as 想像 or 察する, saying something is easy to picture; に足る, by contrast, evaluates something as worthy of or sufficient for an action. The two cannot be swapped, and both are literary.
- までもないN1までもない says an action is superfluous — there is no need to go out of your way to do it — while に足る says something is worthy of or sufficient for an action, so the meanings differ and they cannot be swapped. までもない attaches only to the dictionary form of verbs and works in both speech and writing, whereas に足る leans literary.
に値する is close in meaning ('deserving of') and freely follows nouns (称賛に値する), while に足る stresses meeting a sufficient standard; に足りない is its negative ('not worth, trivial'). にたえる / にたえない concern whether something can bear or is fit for an action (見るにたえない 'too awful to watch'), whereas にあたらない, までもない ('no need to') and にかたくない ('easy to') do not express worthiness at all.
