Beside\Besides |
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Votes: 2854
Comments: 9
Added: October 2004
| Trish - 20th December 2006 14:33 |
| What is beside the point, the last word of the sentence? We should use besides here, beside is an indication of a place. |
| keane - 29th August 2007 15:17 |
| Beside the bus stop there's a lamp post, so what is beside the point? (so,thats wrong) Really, without the 's' its an indication of position. you can even use it in comparisons 'beside your earlier work this piece seems rather disappointing'. |
| bill - 17th October 2007 01:12 |
| "Beside the point" is the right answer. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti onary/beside%20the%20point It's a phrase... you can't analyze it. Just like if you try to analyze "raining cats and dogs". |
| susan - 3rd May 2008 20:58 |
| Of course it does have a syntactic analysis.As for me, it´s "besides",because it refers to something is beyond the topic of the conversation,besides meaning as well as,like, it´s not pertinent ,or ,it has nothing to do with this,it´s just besides the point...I understand it this way...thanks and regards to everyone. |
| Aches - 5th November 2008 10:51 |
| It's "beside the point", precisely because "beside" is an indication of place, as Trish says. Figuratively speaking, the subject in question is not the point itself, but beside it, and hence of lesser importance. Besides is more an adverb than a preposition, meaning "in addition to" or "other than". I can't see how it could possibly be used here, unless it's a fixed locution, which I strongly doubt it is. |
| ragband - 8th April 2009 18:05 |
| google results: 3,190,000 for "beside the point" 478,000 for "besides the point" yep |
| bea - 8th May 2009 09:53 |
| it is beside the point because we say it when someone is getting off the subject or point, so they are going beside the point instead of straight at it |
| Scott Eller - 25th June 2009 16:45 |
| The observation that “beside” indicates place or position is an argument for, not against “beside the point”. “On” and “off” indicate place, but no one argues that “on point”, “not on point”, or “off point” are incorrect. “Besides” means except or in addition, as in “Three others besides myself are going” or “It will take something besides an apology to resolve the matter”. Do you mean in addition when saying “besides the point”? If not, then do not say it. |
| Ankur Sharma - 22nd November 2009 08:33 |
| It depends on what is "the point". if it is taken as a place "beside" is correct and if we take it as subject or topic "besides" is correct. |
