にたえる / にたえない
- 1Worth doing or good enough to stand up to something (にたえる).Ex. 1
- 2So bad or painful that one cannot bear to do it (にたえない).Ex. 2
- 3After emotion nouns, expresses an overwhelmingly strong feeling (にたえない).
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A formal, mostly written pattern used in reviews, criticism, reports, speeches and formal letters. にたえる praises something as good enough to withstand reading, viewing or scrutiny. にたえない either condemns something as too awful to look at or listen to, or, with emotion nouns, expresses deep gratitude or regret in ceremonial language.
Learners should not read 感謝にたえない as 'cannot stand gratitude'; it means being extremely grateful.
Do not attach にたえない freely to any verb; it mainly combines with 見る, 聞く, 読む and a limited set of nouns.
Note that this pattern is formal and sounds stiff in casual conversation.
- に足る / に足りるN1「に足る」is close in meaning only to the 'worth' sense of 「にたえる」: it stresses that value, qualification, or grounds are sufficient, as in 「信頼に足る」, whereas 「にたえる」stresses withstanding scrutiny. 「に足る」has no 'unbearable / more than one can bear' usage.
- に値するN1「に値する」is close in meaning only to 「にたえる」, but it stresses having value or being deserving of something and typically attaches to evaluative words like 称賛・注目. Its negative 「に値しない」means 'not worth,' which differs from 「にたえない」's 'unbearable / more than one can bear' sense.
- を禁じ得ないN1「を禁じ得ない」is similar only to the 'emotion noun + にたえない' pattern, which attaches to just a few words like 感謝・遺憾 and serves mostly as solemn politeness. 「を禁じ得ない」itself typically pairs with 涙・感動・怒り and stresses feelings that well up irresistibly when one is moved, so the two are generally not interchangeable.
- がたいN3「にたえない」attaches to the dictionary form or nouns and says the object is so bad one cannot bear to see or hear it, or, with words like 「感謝」「遺憾」, expresses emotions hard to hold back. 「がたい」attaches to the masu-stem and means something is almost impossible to do, as in 「信じがたい」, so the two cannot be interchanged.
- かねるN2「かねる」attaches to the masu-stem and means being unable to do something because of one's position, sense of propriety, or feelings, often serving as a tactful refusal. When 「にたえない」attaches to verbs like 見る, it says the object is too bad to endure: 「見かねる」is 'can't bear to keep watching,' while 「見るにたえない」is 'too dreadful to look at.'
Like に足る and に値する, にたえる expresses worth, but it stresses that something holds up under reading, viewing or scrutiny. In its emotion use, にたえない resembles を禁じ得ない but sounds more ceremonial. Its 'cannot bear' sense is about something being too unpleasant to face, unlike がたい (hard to do) or かねる (unable to do for situational reasons, often a polite refusal).
