Let’s go on learning collocations related to the five senses, with expressions for describing different smells. Let’s begin by looking at some commonly confused words.
, and all describe a good smell. You can talk about the of a cake that has just been taken out of the oven, the of flowers, and the of a woman’s perfume.
The word smell is neutral; you can have the of fresh-baked bread, or the of rotting food. The word “smell” can be a noun or a verb – so you can also say “” or “.”
The words , and all describe bad smells – there’s the of a dead animal, and the of sewage. The unpleasant smell of a person who doesn’t take showers or use deodorant is called .
To describe the strength of smells, you can say they are or . When a smell is extremely strong, you can say it is an . A smell that you recognize can be called a familiar smell, and a smell that is unique and easy to identify can be called a or an .
Smells can “waft” – that means float through the air. For example, the of chocolate chip cookies wafted across the room. Another verb used with smell is “fill” – the of smoke filled the hallway. Finally, if a smell stays in a place for a long time, we can use the verb “linger” – the of her cooking lingered in the kitchen for hours.