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pest1
Joined: 09 Feb 2006
Location: Korea
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 Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 10:12 pm Post subject: The use of "beside" and "next to" |
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I was asked the other day what was the difference between "beside" and "next to"? As far as prepositions go, I thought they were pretty much the same.
The book is next to the glass.
The book is beside the glass.
"Beside" can be used in other contexts that can not be replaced by "next to"
I am beside myself.
Any other differences? |
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rocklee
Joined: 04 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 10:45 pm Post subject: |
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"Beside" can be used as a transitive,
"I don't have enough money to go on holidays. Beside, I need to save money for my education." |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 11:02 pm Post subject: |
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| rocklee wrote: |
"Beside" can be used as a transitive,
"I don't have enough money to go on holidays. Beside, I need to save money for my education." |
You're thinking of 'besides'. |
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pest1
Joined: 09 Feb 2006
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 11:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Qinella wrote: |
| rocklee wrote: |
"Beside" can be used as a transitive,
"I don't have enough money to go on holidays. Beside, I need to save money for my education." |
You're thinking of 'besides'. |
A quote from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/besides
Usage Note: Some critics argue that beside and besides should be kept distinct when they are used as prepositions. According to that argument, beside is used only to mean "at the side of," as in There was no one in the seat beside me. For the meanings "in addition to" and "except for" besides should be used: Besides replacing the back stairs, she fixed the broken banister. No one besides Smitty would say a thing like that. But this distinction is often ignored, even by widely respected writers. While it is true that besides can never mean "at the side of," beside regularly appears in print in place of besides. Using beside in this way can be ambiguous, however; the sentence There was no one beside him at the table could mean that he had the table to himself or that the seats next to him were not occupied. |
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Woland
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 2:43 am Post subject: |
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Go to www.lextutor.ca and do a corpus search on each term to create a concordance so that you can compare them in context and discover the differences yourself.
You might also try this with 'under' and 'below', which pose a similar problem. |
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Tokki1
Joined: 14 May 2007
Location: The gap between the Korean superiority and inferiority complex
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 8:42 am Post subject: |
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| rocklee wrote: |
"Beside" can be used as a transitive,
"I don't have enough money to go on holidays. Beside, I need to save money for my education." |
You're kidding, right...  |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 9:05 am Post subject: |
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| pest1 wrote: |
| Qinella wrote: |
| rocklee wrote: |
"Beside" can be used as a transitive,
"I don't have enough money to go on holidays. Beside, I need to save money for my education." |
You're thinking of 'besides'. |
A quote from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/besides
Usage Note: Some critics argue that beside and besides should be kept distinct when they are used as prepositions. According to that argument, beside is used only to mean "at the side of," as in There was no one in the seat beside me. For the meanings "in addition to" and "except for" besides should be used: Besides replacing the back stairs, she fixed the broken banister. No one besides Smitty would say a thing like that. But this distinction is often ignored, even by widely respected writers. While it is true that besides can never mean "at the side of," beside regularly appears in print in place of besides. Using beside in this way can be ambiguous, however; the sentence There was no one beside him at the table could mean that he had the table to himself or that the seats next to him were not occupied. |
And "irregardless" is listed in the dictionary. You can find some linguist somewhere to disagree with just about any grammatical rule, but unless rocklee is actually reincarnated James Joyce and I didn't know about it, let's stick with standards. |
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Marc Ravalomanana
Joined: 15 May 2007
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 10:20 am Post subject: |
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| rocklee wrote: |
"Beside" can be used as a transitive,
"I don't have enough money to go on holidays. Beside, I need to save money for my education." |
That's not a "transitive"; it's a conjunction. |
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Grimalkin
Joined: 22 May 2005
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 11:11 am Post subject: |
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"Cleanliness is next to Godliness but Tidiness is next to Impossible".
Can't use 'beside' there! |
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swetepete
Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Location: a limp little burg
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 11:16 am Post subject: |
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You forgot:
"Then I flipped her over and played 'er b-side."
Can't use 'next' there. |
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rocklee
Joined: 04 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Tokki1 wrote: |
You're kidding, right... |
Hehe 
I wonder how many people fell for it. Good to see people actually trying to solve the problem. |
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