Spanish language Q&A Forum

Hello,

I noticed that oler seems to be sometimes built with the preposition "a" before introducing the smell of something, such as in:

Tú hueles a perfume fresco. 

or

Las galletas huelen a chocolate.

So I thought it was used in the meaning of "smelling like something", when the subject themselves smells like something. But then I also noticed it in ¿Vosotros oléis a pollo quemado?".

So is the "a" used rather when the smell has no article? What is the rule (if any)?

Thank you!

do you think you could give the translation into english of the dictation exercises at the end? - as it would be helpful thanks :) 

In the case of the broken radio, using 'es' suggests the radio is irreparable, whereas 'está' suggests it can be repaired

I should’ve said  “Podía ver.. vs veía, do they mean the same thing. Gracias, Shirley. 

There seem be so many ways to say this in Spanish: "fuimos a dar un paseo" is one I hear a lot.  "Hemos paseado" (or "hemos caminado") translates as "we have walked" rather than "went for,.".   It's very confusing! 

QWhat Is the difference between estuve/estaba/era/fui

When do we know it its te or tu gusta is it just dependent on if it is a reflextive verb or not

Sometimes with monosyllabic words we make this suffix even longer: -ececillo, -ececilla, -ececillos, -ececillas: