Oprócz (Except / Besides) and Zamiast (Instead Of)
When discussing dietary restrictions or adjusting a recipe, you will often need to talk about excluding or swapping ingredients. To do this, use the prepositions oprócz (except/besides) and zamiast (instead of).
Crucially, both of these prepositions require the noun or pronoun that follows them to take the Genitive case.
Leaving Things Out with Oprócz
Use oprócz when you want to say "except for" or "besides". Notice how the noun following it changes to its Genitive form (for example, the neuter noun mięso becomes mięsa).
| I eat everything except meat. | Jem wszystko oprócz mięsa. |
| Besides meat, I also don't eat dairy. | Oprócz mięsa nie jem też nabiału. |
| There are a lot of ingredients in this recipe besides meat. | W tym przepisie jest dużo składników oprócz mięsa. |
Swapping Ingredients with Zamiast
Use zamiast to express "instead of". This is incredibly useful for altering a recipe or ordering food. Just like with oprócz, the replaced item must be in the Genitive case (for example, masło becomes masła, and pizza becomes pizzy).
| Instead of butter, I added a little olive oil. | Zamiast masła dodałem trochę oliwy. |
| She added honey instead of sugar. | Dodała miód zamiast cukru. |
| Can I order a salad instead of pizza? | Czy mogę zamówić sałatkę zamiast pizzy? |
Replacing and Substituting
When you want to explicitly state that you are replacing one thing with another, you can use the verb zastąpić (to replace or substitute).
| to replace (substitute) | zastąpić |
You can combine this with zamiast to explain why you are using alternative ingredients, such as fresh vegetables or beans, to accommodate specific diets.
| Instead of bread I eat beans, because I avoid gluten. | Zamiast chleba jem fasolę, bo unikam glutenu. |
| I want to replace the meat, so instead of it I will add fresh mushrooms. | Chcę zastąpić mięso, więc zamiast niego dodam świeże grzyby. |