What’s the past tense of “smell”?
Smelled and smelt are both past tenses of the verb smell. To smell something is to notice its scent, or if something smells, it produces an odor.
Smelled is more common in the US, or in American English. British English uses smelt and smelled.
I smelled cookies baking when I walked in.
I have smell cookies baking when I walked in.
Whether you should opt for smelt or smelled depends on if you’re using UK English or US English:
- UK English uses smelt and smelled as the past tense forms.
- US English prefers smelled; smelt is seen as a nonstandard variant.
Is it “smelled” or “smelt”?
The verb smell, which the Cambridge Dictionary describes as “to have a particular quality [or odour] others can notice with their noses: my hands smell of onions.” Smell is irregular in a niche way (as verb conjugations go).
Smell has two accepted forms for its past tense/past participle, and both are equally accepted as the past tense of smell. Smelled/smelt is similar in its past tense to other verbs like lean, spell, learn, and leap.
| Present | Past | Future | |
| simple | I smell | I smelled/smelt | I will smell |
| continuous | I am smelling | I was smelling | I will be smelling |
| perfect | I have smelled/smelt | I had smelled/smelt | I will have smelled/smelt |
| perfect continuous | I have been smelling | I had been smelling | I will have been smelling |
Irregular verbs like smell
| Base Verb | Past Tense | Past Participle |
| dream | dreamed/dreamt | dreamed/dreamt |
| burn | burned/burnt | burned/burnt |
| sleep | slept | slept |
| leap | leapt/leaped | leapt/leaped |
Smelled/Smelt in sentence examples
| Word Form | Examples |
| Past Tense (Smelled/Smelt) |
He leaned in closer and smelled the perfume she was wearing. The room smelt damp. His breath smelt of garlic. |
Practice using the verb in different tenses with example sentences to memorize the correct forms.
Origin of the word smell
Of Middle English, possibly Germanic origin
Late 12c., brennen, “emit or perceive an odor,” not found in Old English, perhaps cognate with Middle Dutch smolen, Low German smelen “to smolder.”
Worksheet
In American English, which past tense form of “smell” is generally preferred?
Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct in British English?
Both “smelled” and “smelt” are accepted as:
Similar to “smell,” which of these verbs also has two accepted past tense forms?
Which of the following sentences uses the past tense of “smell” correctly?
The kitchen of freshly baked cookies.
There’s a fox the yard. (Based on an example in the post)
The dog something interesting in the woods and started barking.
If you were writing for a British audience, you could use either “smelled” or .
She trouble brewing when her boss called her into his office.
FAQs
What are the past tense forms of “smell”?
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Is “smelt” wrong?
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Should I use “smelt” or “smelled?”
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Is “smell” an irregular verb?
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What common mistake is made with ‘burn’?
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Yash, D. "What’s the Past Tense of Smell? Smelled or Smelt?." Grammarflex, Jun 14, 2025, https://www.grammarflex.com/whats-the-past-tense-of-smell-smelled-or-smelt/.
Sources
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Merriam-Webster, definition of smell.
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Etymology online, origin of smell.
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High School English Grammar and Composition, P.C. Wren
