Beside and Besides

Sometimes beside and besides are confused especially with writing.

Beside

The word beside is a preposition. It means close to or next to.
Come and sit beside me.
He lives beside a Turkish take away.

Besides

As a preposition, the word besides means apart from or in addition to.
Besides Sarah, who else went camping for the weekend?
( here 'besides' means 'apart from')

I wasn't too keen to go to the concert. Besides, I was too busy.
(here 'besides' means 'in addition to', 'furthermore')

Lesson by Tristan, teacher at EC Malta English school

Now complete the following with beside or besides:

• 1. I saw Denise sitting __ David at the dinner last night.
  
  beside
  besides
  
  
• 2. Your phone is right __ the keyboard.
  
  beside
  besides
  
  
• 3. I can't come on the boat trip because it starts too early. __ I get seasick.
  
  Beside
  Besides
  
  
• 4. __ some phrases and a few words, I don't know that much Italian.
  
  Beside
  Besides
  
  
• 5. That's Sarah, sitting __ the exit.
  
  besides
  beside
  
  
• 6. __ , I don’t even know his full name.
  
  Besides
  beside
  
  
• 7. There were only two other people __ us who could speak English.
  
  beside
  besides
  
  
• 8. There is a beautiful statue on the left __ the collection of pottery.
  
  beside
  besides