oprócz

Oprócz is a Polish preposition meaning beside, in addition to, or apart from. It introduces a noun or pronoun in the genitive case, indicating something that is being added to or excluded from a set.

In usage, oprócz is used to list items that accompany or supplement another item, or to indicate an exception. For example: Oprócz literatury czyta także gazety. (In addition to literature, he reads newspapers.) Oprócz mnie nikt nie przyszedł. (Besides me, nobody came.)

Grammatically, oprócz governs the genitive case. The form of the following pronoun or noun changes accordingly: oprócz mnie, oprócz ciebie, oprócz niego, oprócz niej, oprócz nas, oprócz was, oprócz nich. For nouns, this means using the genitive plural or singular as appropriate (e.g., oprócz literatury, oprócz gazet).

Relation to other prepositions: oprócz is often compared with poza. While both can mean “besides” or “apart from,” poza may emphasize being outside of something or an exception in a broader sense, whereas oprócz frequently highlights addition to a set or a contrasting element within a context. In many contexts they are interchangeable, but there can be subtle stylistic differences.

See also: poza, wśród, na plus. Oprócz remains a common, formal preposition in Polish, widely used in writing and speech to denote inclusion of additional items or exclusion of others.