May. 15, 2008 - Los olores
Los olores - scents - can be one of our most pleasurable senses (and sometimes one of the least!). Let's talk about how we talk about smells and scents in Spanish. The irregular verb oler is used to say something smells good or bad, or smells like something else. When conjugated in present tense, the verb oler turns into huele (singular) or huelen (plural). I don't usually write out pronunciations on this blog, because it is often awkward, but huele is a word most folks needs a little help with the first time they encounter it. Huele is pronounced way-lay, and huelen is pronounced way-len. Here is the basic formula:
NOUN + huele + bien/mal - _______ smells good/bad
NOUN + huelen + bien/mal - ________ smells good/bad
To ask whether something smells good, use this formula:
¿Huele bien el/la + noun? - Does the ______ smell good?
¿Huelen bien los/las + plural noun? - Do the ______ smell good?
Let's give it a try!
NOUN + huele + bien/mal - _______ smells good/bad
NOUN + huelen + bien/mal - ________ smells good/bad
To ask whether something smells good, use this formula:
¿Huele bien el/la + noun? - Does the ______ smell good?
¿Huelen bien los/las + plural noun? - Do the ______ smell good?
Let's give it a try!
¿Huelen bien los flores? Sí, los flores huelen bien.
¿Huele bien la pizza? Sí, la pizza huele bien.
¿Huele bien el jabón? Sí, el jabón huele bien.
¿Huelen bien los zorillos? ¡No, los zorillos no huelen bien! Los zorillos huelen mal.
You can even make this more emphatic by saying: ¡Los zorillos no huelen nada bien! (Literally - Skunks don't smell the least bit good!)
Another way to say it: ¡Los zorillos huelen feo! (Literally, skunks smell ugly)
¿Huelen bien las galletas? ¡Síiiiiiiiiiii, las galletas huelen muy (very) bien!
Blogging makes me hungry for some reason.....
P.S. This topic naturally ties into your flash cards! Select cards that depict anything that you can smell (from a flower, to bread, to a foot - yuck!) and practice plugging this formula in to talk about how things smell.
