Describing smells in English
Hi there and welcome to my channel. Today, we're talking about smells and how to describe them.
So, here are some examples of the different ways to describe smells. For example: "My coat smells of dog" -meaning that my coat has probably come into contact with the dog and his smell or its smell or odour is on it; "This perfume smells like roses" -meaning that the smell or fragrance is similar to roses; "Smells awful". Here we just use an adjective after the verb to describe the smell of the meat. Another easy way to say that something smells like something is just by adding a "y" onto a noun, like "garlicky", "flowery", "lemony", "minty" or "smoky".
Of course, there are different words for a smell. Some of some examples are; "An odor", "an aroma", "a scent", "a whiff", "a waft".
If we're talking about detecting a smell, we can use some of the following phrases: "Pick up a scent", as in: "The sniffer dogs picked up the scent"; "Have a keen or good scent or nose". For example: "That Alsatian has a keen scent"; "Catch a whiff of something" as in: "I caught a whiff of fried onions as I walked past the barbecue". You can also say: "A waft of perfume followed her around the room" or "I could smell the aroma of freshly brewed coffee".
Some smells can be vague or light, in which case we can often use "a touch of" or "a hint of". For example: "The salad dressing has a hint of basil" or "I noticed a touch of licorice in the wine".
Other smells can be rather or very unpleasant. Here are some common examples of things that smell bad: "Your bedroom stinks! What have you been doing in there?". "Stink" is a noun and verb: "The house reeks of rotten food". Again, "reek" is both noun and verb. "The kitchen stinks to high heaven " -this is a casual or informal expression. "Your feet honk, go and wash them". So, "honk" also is casual or informal.
You can also just use the verb smell as it already implies a bad smell, as in: "He smells, because he hasn't had a shower". Of course, we can use adjectives to describe unpleasant or bad smells. Some of the more common adjectives are. "Rotten", "fetid". "putrid", "acrid", "nauseating", "musty" -meaning stale or not fresh, "rancid" -often used to describe unpleasant or stale food, and "funky" -this last one is slang.
So, what about nice or pleasant smells? Some of the most common adjectives are. "Fragrant" -this can be used for perfume, food or pretty much anything. We can also say "aromatic", "rich", "scented" or "delicious".
So, let's talk about smells circulating or remaining in the air or atmosphere. Here are some examples we can use: The verb "linger", like: "The aroma of grilled hamburgers lingered in the air outside the football stadium". Or the verb "waft", like: "The smell of tobacco wafted into our flat through the open window".
That's all for now. I hope you've enjoyed this video and found it useful. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and see you next time. Bye!