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Commonly Confused Words 🤔 Beside & Besides❗
6 years agoI was working on prepositions with a student this week, and he asked how to reliably tell the difference between beside and besides. What a great question! Beside and besides are often mistaken as interchangeable. Although very similar in appearance, they do in fact have different functions!The word beside is a preposition. Its most common definition is at the side of/next to.
- I am beside the building waiting in line.
- We walked to town beside the road.
- We sat beside the lake and soaked up the sun.
Beside also has a few figurative definitions: in comparison to/equal to
- His idea almost seems good beside yours!
- You deserve to be seen beside the best scientists in the country.
Both examples relate to our first definition - being next to something or someone, but they are imaginary, or "figurative".
Besides can be either an adverb or a preposition. When an adverb, besides is defined as: in addition to/as well/moreover/furthermore.
- I’m perfectly willing to take on more work and, besides, I want to.
- I'm happy to help, and besides, it will be good to practice.
- I don't want to go to class, and besides, I did not study or do the homework.
When a preposition, besides is defined as: in addition to/apart from.
- Besides the news alerts, everyone was gossiping about the robbery.
- No one besides my boss can approve that request.
As mentioned earlier, beside and besides can often be heard or seen interchangeably, which might be confusing! As best practice, use beside to describe "next to" (physical location/orientation), and besides to mean "furthermore" (in addition to).
What other similar words do you have trouble with? Let's discuss them!
