Beside and besides

BESIDE or BESIDES?

It is easy to confuse beside and besides, but they are not one and the same thing. Beside is a preposition, whereas besidesworks as both a preposition and an adverb, and although besides is sometimes used in place of beside, they have distinct meanings.

BESIDE Meaning and Examples

Beside is a preposition.

It means “at the side of” or “next to“.

Beside examples:

• He stood beside his new car proudly.
• I keep a dictionary beside me when I am writing.
• Will you sit beside me at dinner?
• The barn beside the farmer’s house was falling down.

BESIDES Meaning and Examples

Besides can be used either a preposition or an adverb.

• As a preposition, besides means “in addition to” or “apart from“.
• As an adverb, it means “furthermore“.

Besides examples:

• What are you working on besides the research project?
• There will be four of us for dinner besides Malathi.
• She has no relatives besides an aged aunt.
• He is my youngest child and I have three others besides.

NOTE:

As mentioned above, the distinction between the beside vs besides is sometimes ignored. Besides can never mean “at the side of“, but beside is often used in place of besides. This can lead to misunderstanding. However, the sentence “There was no one beside him in the hall” could mean that “he” was all by himself, or that there was no one next to him.