[Grammar] worth vs. worthy

[belltrio]

Hi!
I just asked a native speaker of English about the difference between worth and worthy. She said '' 'She didn't believe that she was worthy of being loved.' is correct, and 'She didn't believe her worthy of being loved' could be acceptable but 'She didn't believe herself worth being loved' is grammatically not correct." Could anybody give me explanation of the differences or whether her explanation was correct or not?

 

[BobK]

I wouldn't call it 'ungrammatical' exactly, just meaningless. 'She didn't believe herself worth tuppence' would work though! ;-)

b

 

[BobK]

Perhaps 'tuppence' needs explanation. It means (literally) 'two (old) pence' [= a bit less than a new penny], but figuratively it just means 'a negligible amount'.

BNC has these hits for 'not worth +<noun>'

1 NOT WORTH LIVING 10
2 NOT WORTH PRESERVING 4
3 NOT WORTH ANYTHING 4
...
then 14 gerunds, then

18 NOT WORTH TWOPENCE 1
19 NOT WORTH TUPPENCE 1
...

b