Page 560 - Practical English Usage 3ed - Michael Swan, Oxford

535 smell
1 British and American forms
In British English. regular and irregular past tenses and participles are both common: smelled and smelt. American fonns are usually regular.
2 link verb
Smell can be used as a 'link verb' (see 328), followed by an adjective or noun, to say how something smeUs. Progressive fonns are not used.
Those roses smeU beautiful. (NOT .•• smell Beatttifully.)
The soup smells funny. What's in it? (NOT ••• is smellingJ~nny ...) Before a noun, smell ofand smell like are used.
The railway carriage smelt o f beer and old socks.
His aftershave smelt like an explosion in a flower shop. Smell is sometimes used to mean 'smell bad'.
That dog smells.
3 transitive verb: 'perceive'
Smell can be used with an object, to say what we perceive with our noses. Progressive fonns are not used. We often use can smell (see 125).
As we walked into the house. we smelt something burning. 1 can smell supper.
4 transitive verb: 'investigate'
Another transitive use is to say that we are using our noses to find out something. Progressive fonns can be used.
What are you doing?-I'm smelling the meat to see ifit's still OK.
536 so: adverb meaning 'like this/that'
1 after seem, appear etc
So can be used in a fonnal style in a few cases to mean 'like this/that', 'in this/that way'. This happens, for example, after seem, appear, remain, more and less.
Will the business make a loss this year?- I t appears so.
The weather is stormy, and will remain so over the weekend.
She was always nervous, and after her accident she became even more so. 1 read the front page very carefully, and the rest ofthe paper less so.
2 not used in other cases
In other cases, so is not nonnally used adverbially to mean 'like this/that', 'in this/that way'.
Look - hold it up in the air like this. (NOT ••• :181tl it I:lfJ in the ai,. 98.) When he laughs like that 1 want to scream. (NOT "'RIm he lattghs 98 •••) I don't think we should do it in that way. (NOT dB it S8.)
He says he is ill and he looks it. (NOT ••• he 188les 98.)
For so with say and rell. see 540. For so am J etc. see 541. For so with hope. believe etc. see 539. For do so. see 162.
smell 535
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