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So "odoras" in this sentence seems to refer to the subject of the sentence producing a smell. Can I use the same verb for smelling in the sense of the subject perceiving an odor? Like if I were to say, "I smell the flower."
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Great question. The transitive 'smell' is actually an entirely different word, flari.
Mi flaras la floron. = 'I smell the flower.'
Mi flaras la odoron. = 'I smell the smell.'
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You can also make words mixing the ones you already know.
Example: If you know that "senti" means "to feel", you can make "odorsenti". This helps a lot when you forget a word in the middle of a conversation.
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Why is it "bone" and not "bona"? What is the "e" at the end of words in esperanto? (I though it was "a" for adjectives)
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Like Ibraesil said, the -e is for adverbs. Adverbs modify the verb, not the noun. So, in this case, "bone" is used because it smells good. Bona would be used if you were saying that the oil IS good.
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-e is for adverbs. I think saying "La varma olero odoras tre bona" would be like saying "The hot, good oil smells very" or "The hot, very good oil smells" or something. You're right, -a is for adjectives, though.
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Wait, and this is an English grammar question, why isn't it that "The oil smells well?" Isn't good an adjective, and not an adverb?
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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.
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Actually, thinking about it more, I realised that if you say that something "smells well" that means that it is good at smelling - i.e. it has a sensitive nose. Whereas if you say that something "smells /good/" that means that if gives off a nice scent.
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The thing about Esperanto is that “odoras” can only refer to something giving off a smell, not something smelling as with one’s nose. Thus, to “smell well” using the word “odoras” can only refer to the scent of the oil.
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I put warm for varma. It counts it as correct but shows an alternate translation of varma meaning hot. Made me think, how do you differentiate between warm and hot?
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I don't know if there's a way to make the exact same distinction that is made in English. But varmeta, varma, and varmega are useful ways of quantifying just how warm/hot something is.
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something along the lines of "warm" and "boiling", I think. Think of "-eg-" as making if from "hot" to "mEGa hot!" and "-et-" as doing the opposite.
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Because "The hot oil -smells good-." not "The -good oil- smells." -e is for adverbs and "bon-" needs to affect "odoras" in these sentence, so it has to be "bone".
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In English "good" is an adjective NOT an adverb Yet it is translated here as an adverb. Why?
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I believe it is describing odoras and not oleo, so therefore it needs to be an adverb.
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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.
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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."
Thanks this make sense to me, these adverbial clauses in English sometimes puzzle me more than they do in Esperanto :)
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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! :)
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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!
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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?
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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.
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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?
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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.
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The one response I’ll leave here is that the more common verb for “to sense a scent” is “flari” not “odorumi” but I believe “odorumi” is technically not wrong.
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Is "La varma oleo estas odora tre bone" a correct way of saying this?
I don't think it's a better way or anything but could I say it that way?
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I think what you're trying to do is make a participle. Check this link out: http://esperanto.davidgsimpson.com/eo-verbforms.html
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Well, that's too advanced for me just yet.
What I am asking is that, if, for example, odoras = estas odora, or bongustas = estas bongusta, I could tecnically say: "La varma oleo estas odora tre bone" right?
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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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Can I quickly just say that technically, odora is a word, but it just doesn't work in the concept that Poolkman used it in. Not trying to cause any drama :D
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Does bone mean great or good? I came across this twice cause I got it wrong, but I put in the answer given to me and still got it wrong. I am just wondering because I am very confused as to what the right answer actually is, because it changed on me twice.
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If you try to translate something from English, limit yourself to "good" if you mean to indicate it's positive, and use "great" only to indicate "wields a lot of power". It makes life much easier. Approached that way, "bone" can't mean "great".
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bone is clearly an adverb, and the most usual translation for that word is well.
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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.
