Hi everybody. Welcome back to Ask Alicia, the weekly series where you ask me questions and I answer them.

Maybe. Let's get to your first question this week. First question this week comes from Al Rayleigh. Hi,

Al Rayleigh asked, hi Alicia. What's the difference between besides and instead? Good question. Okay, so for this answer, I want to talk about the type of sentence

or the type of expression in which these two words might overlap in meaning. So the two can be

used very, very similarly, like when we're talking about alternative plans for something. But the grammatical structure of the sentence is going to change.

So let's take a look at an example situation and an example sentence.

So let's say, for example, that we're talking about plans for the weekend

and we're talking with somebody as we make these plans and agreeing on what we would like to do.

We might say something like, hmm, the weather isn't going to be good this weekend.

I know we planned to go for a hike, but how about we watch a movie instead?

So in this situation, instead is used to mean in place of that other thing. So in this situation,

we are suggesting an alternative to the original plan. The original plan was to go hiking,

but instead, we are suggesting, as an alternative, we are suggesting we watch a movie

because the weather is not so good. So let's take a look at how we might express the same idea, but with the word besides to do that.

So again, same situation.

So let's say, okay, we plan to go for a hike, but the weather's not good, so we're going to watch a movie.

Or we suggest watching a movie.

You might say, for example, hey, I know we plan to go for a hike this weekend, but how

about a movie?

Besides, the weather's not so good anyway.

So in this situation, we can use besides to describe the situation or the change in the situation

or to suggest that there is a change in the situation that has caused us to suggest a change in our plans.

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