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Dec 08, 2012 10:37

Quick grammar question:

She didn't know if anyone besides her had noticed.

Should that be besides or beside? Or is this one of those things where either is (annoyingly) correct?

death by english

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Comments 6

laura_josephsen December 8 2012, 18:36:20 UTC
It should be "besides"; if you have "beside", it implies she doesn't know if anyone next to her noticed.

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melyanna December 8 2012, 20:30:21 UTC
I see the ambiguity there, but then I looked it up and the dictionary said it could be either.

…I think I may go with maerchen's suggestion.

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maerchen December 8 2012, 19:48:20 UTC
This is the kind of sentence where I usually write "other than" instead of "besides" to avoid confusion.

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melyanna December 8 2012, 20:25:51 UTC
Yeah, I had that thought after I posted, but then LJ was down and I was still curious. ;)

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miera_c December 9 2012, 02:25:45 UTC
I was gonna say that too. Dodge the whole question!

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melyanna December 9 2012, 03:20:14 UTC
Yeah, discretion being the better part of valor, I reworded. ;)

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