"La varma oleo odoras tre bone."
Translation:The hot oil smells very good.
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Do you mean, in English, why don't we say, "The oil smells well" rather than "The oil smells good"?
My guess would be that in "The oil smells good", you're actually saying, "The oil smells like it is good". As in, like, "I have determined, from smelling the oil, that the oil is good oil", or something.
Usually that is correct, and "well" is the normal way of translating "bone" into English. But there are some cases where doing so produces either bad English or a wrong translation. That's the case with the verb "to smell". "The oil smells very well" is not the way we say it in English. And if we replace oil with a dog, "The dog smells very well" would mean that the dog has a good sense of smell, not that when I sniff the animal, I get a pleasing aroma!
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Because in English we use an adjective to describe an aspect of the oil. Its smell is good. In English we have two meanings for the verb to smell: 1 To give off a scent (Esperanto odori) 2 To sense a scent (Esperanto flari)
If you used the adverb in the English sentence, that would imply that the oil was sentient.
I disagree. In English, "X smells very well" means that X has a good sense of smell. So oil, not having a sense of smell, cannot smell well. To be correct English, it has to be, "The oil smells very good."
Is odori intransitive?
If so, could we say "La varma oleo odoras." meaning "The hot oil smells."? In English, we would assume that this would mean the oil smells bad, but does it have the same meaning in Esperanto?
If not, why is there two different transitive verbs for smell?
Is there an equivallent to a transitive/intransitive verb with regards to adverbs rather than direct objects?
Dankon pro via helpo! :)
Odori is intransitive. You can absolutely say “La varma oleo odoras” but it does not mean “the oil smells” in the same way as it does in English, but rather simply that it gives off a scent. As far as adverb usage goes in Esperanto, the rules are few. You can use adverbs for intransitive state-of-being verbs unlike in English (eg, it smells “well” being ĝi odoras bone rather than ĝi odoras bona). I’m not sure if that answered your questions but I hope I helped at least a little!
I'm getting this translation after a Type what you hear. I'm a bit in doubt, though. Why would it be "bone" if the translation is "good", rather than "well"? I can think up to similar constructs: - The hot oil smells well. [The oil is intended to smell, and does so well. That's probably because it's hot.] - The oil smells good. [Whether or not this is the intention, the oil gives off a pleasant smell.]
Now, which one would be "La varma oleo odoras bone."? And what would the other one be?
It is "bone" because it is an adverb. It describes what the oil smells like. The confusion arises because in English, "good" is sometimes used as an adverb, although more usually it is an adjective. Indeed in this particular context it would be wrong to say that the oil smells well, because that would mean that the oil has its own sense of smell, and uses it well, which obviously is not the meaning.
I English, if I said the oil "smells very well", that would imply that the oil is very good at smelling, instead of that the scent of it is nice, which is why "good" is used here.
From reading the comments, I gather that "bone", the adverb, is describing the verb, as adverbs do, to say that the scent of the oil is good. Is this adverb bit different in Esperanto and English?
In English, the way to differentiate between giving off a scent and receiving a scent is by smells good/smells well. In Esperanto, the way to tell the difference is in the verb. Odori and odorumi, respectively. I think it's more of a matter of the fact that "smell" works differently in English and Esperanto, than it is that "well" (or "good") works differently. If anything, Esperanto is probably more consistent.
I think what you're trying to do is make a participle. Check this link out: http://esperanto.davidgsimpson.com/eo-verbforms.html
Ah, I see what you're asking. The answer is no, you can't.
You can turn "esti" + an adjective into "adjective-i", but you can't do the opposite. I don't have the words to explain why it doesn't work, but basically "odora" isn't a word. If it /was/ a word, it'd mean something along the lines of "related to an (undefined) smell" or "like an (undefined) smell".
I'm not entirely sure if this is relevant or not, but when you turn an adjective into a verb, it always makes an intransitive verb.
If odoras did mean "estas odora" you would be able to replace it with "estas odora", but it doesn't, so you can't.
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But in English, if you say something smells well then you are saying it has a good sense of smell, as opposed to giving off a pleasant aroma.
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"Great" in UK English is more likely to mean large than good, at least to an old fogey like me.