So which spelling for the past tense of smell is correct, smelled or smelt? These two commonly confused words are both acceptable past tense forms of the word “smell.” The form you use really depends on whether your audience uses American or British English. However, there are other meanings of smelt, so it’s best to use the ed ending.
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What Is Smelled?
Smelled is the past tense of the verb smell. The regular form of the word has different applications, but all of them involve detecting something. For instance, your nose picked up an awful scent, like rotten eggs. Then, there’s gaining a perception of something dubious, such as thinking that someone’s half-baked plan smells fishy.
Examples:
- She smelled a foul aroma coming from somewhere in the fridge.
- The sizzling bacon smelled mouth-wateringly delicious.
- I smelled alcohol!
- The house smelled like clean hay.
- I smelled fresh polish on the way here.
- After I spent all that time outside in the mist, my damp clothes smelled like a wet dog.
- With her keen nose, our dog smelled the presence of a stranger in the house.
- My brother’s story about why he missed the bus smelled a little suspicious.
What Is Smelt?
Like smelled, smelt is a past tense form of smell. You can use it that way, but be careful about context since the word has two other very different meanings.
One of those is as a noun referring to a small type of fish that resembles a trout. These silvery fishes of the family Osmeridae live along coasts; like salmon, they swim inland up rivers to spawn and then die.
The other uses smelt as a transitive verb. It involves using heat and melting to extract metal from ore. Since it’s a regular verb, its past tense would be smelted.
Examples:
- I smelt an unusual odor in the basement and worried there might be mold.
- The dog smelt my leg up and down, surely picking up the scent of my own dog.
- The locker room smelt pretty bad after the long game in hot weather.
- Smelt has a distinct taste, and this fish definitely is not for everyone.
- We’ll have to smelt the raw ore in order to get the iron out of it.
Which One Should You Use?
Both smelled and smelt are correct as the past tense of smell. The difference is really due to where you are or who your audience is. In North America, smelled is the standard form, whereas in the U.K. and Canada, people use both.
The good news is that you can use either spelling, and people should understand what you mean. Context is important since smelled is always the past tense of smell, whereas smelt only is sometimes.
Tricks to Remembering Which One to Use
A mnemonic might help you remember whether to use smelled or smelt as the past tense of smell. It goes, “American English smelled, British English smelt.”
As far as remembering which word has a metalworking meaning, remember that smelting usually involves melting. Since the word melt is in smelt, you can use that to help you remember.
Final Thoughts
So when deciding whether to use smelled or smelt, it’s nice knowing that either is acceptable. That’s for the past tense of smell, of course. If using the preferred form matters a lot to you, then you have to know who your audience is. Americans prefer smelled, whereas Brits and Canadians use smelled and smelt. Don’t forget that the word smelt has different meanings. As a noun, it can be a type of fish that you can find in the fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere. It can be to melt or fuse ores!
