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Beside or Besides?
Which word should be used?
"Beside" is a preposition. It means "very close to someone or something" or "compared to".
Example sentences:
Come here and sit beside me.
John walked up beside her and started talking.
There was a pile of magazines beside her.
He had a gun in a drawer beside his bed.
The results this year look bad beside last year's results.
His second novel seems rather dull beside his first one.
"Beside" is also used in two common phrases:
be beside yourself (with anger, excitement, grief, rage etc) = to find it difficult to control yourself
be beside the point = to be irrelevant, to be of no importance
Example sentences:
Steve was beside himself with grief when his wife died.
I think it's beside the point to ask whether it's really 7 or 9 percent.
"Besides" is an adverb or a preposition. It means "in addition to someone or something" or "also". "Besides" can be followed by a gerund (-ing form of a verb). "Besides doing something" means "in addition to doing something".
Example sentences:
Do you play any sports besides volleyball?
What languages do you speak besides Spanish and English?
There was only one person besides Harry Jones who knew Mitzi Brown.
That would take a long time and besides we don't need it so much any more.
He teaches History at school besides working as a driving instructor.
Besides being very beautiful, she has several good qualities.
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Wyjaśnienie w języku polskim:
beside = "obok, przy" lub "w porównaniu z"
besides = "w dodatku do, oprócz tego, ponadto"
Come here and sit beside me. = Choć tutaj i usiądź obok mnie.
The results this year look bad beside last year's results. = Wyniki w tym roku wyglądają źle w porównaniu z wynikami z zeszłego roku.
What languages do you speak besides Spanish and English? = Jakimi językami władasz oprócz hiszpańskiego i angielskiego?
Isnieją dwie utarte frazy, w których należy użyć "beside" a nie "besides":
be beside yourself (with anger, excitement, grief, rage etc) = nie posiadać się ze złości, emocji, żalu, wściekłości, itp.), nie kontrolować się, nie być sobą
be beside the point = być nieistotne, nieważne, niezwiązane z tematem
Oprócz rzeczownika i zaimka, po "besides" może występować także forma ciągła czasownika (gerund).
He teaches History at school besides working as a driving instructor. = On uczy historii w szkole w dodatku do pracowania jako instruktor nauki jazdy.
Pamiętaj, że "besides" (a tym bardziej "beside") nie może być użyte w znaczeniu "za wyjątkiem". W sytuacjach kiedy coś wykluczamy należy użyć "except' albo "apart from".
Typowy błąd: The shop is open every day besides Sunday.*
Powinno być: The shop is open every day except Sunday.