Valuable To: Standard Pattern
Valuable To: Standard Pattern records a directly documented English construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than turning one attested complement into a universal prohibition.
Use “valuable to” when naming the person, activity, or system for which something has importance or usefulness.
Key details
Choose the right form
| Context | Use | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| naming a person or group for whom something has value | valuable to | Use the documented “valuable to + beneficiary” pattern. |
| naming an activity or system to which something contributes | valuable to | The reviewed construction can introduce that target as well. |
| no target is named | valuable | A complement is not required merely because the adjective appears. |
Quick tests
Value-target test
Are you naming who or what regards, receives, or gains the value?
If yes: “Valuable to + target” is the reviewed pattern.
If no: Do not force “to” when the sentence does not name that relation.
Caveat: Other constructions with “valuable” remain possible; this page records an attested pattern rather than an exclusive rule.
Examples
The archive is valuable to local historians.
“To” introduces the group for whom the archive has value.
Reliable timing data is valuable to the scheduling system.
The complement names the system that benefits from the information.
The necklace is valuable.
No complement is needed when the sentence simply describes value.
Further guidance
Construction
Use “valuable to” when naming the person, activity, or system for which something has importance or usefulness.
Style Boundary
Cambridge directly attests “valuable to”; other valuable constructions remain possible, so this is a bounded pattern rather than an exclusive rule.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- VALUABLE | English meaning — Cambridge Dictionary (opens in a new tab)Cambridge University Press · Direct Cambridge Business English evidence for valuable to somebody or something.