OLER

Oler is a Spanish verb that means to smell, to perceive odors through the sense of smell. It is used for physical perception of scents and, in figurative sense, to indicate a perception or impression about a situation, as in “esto huele a estafa” (this smells like a fraud). The verb is commonly followed by a noun or by the preposition a when describing what is smelled.

Etymology and related usage: Oler comes from Latin olēre, and it has cognates in other Romance languages. It forms a spectrum of expressions with the senses and with idiomatic phrases such as “oler a” meaning to smell of something, or to seem, in a figurative sense.

Conjugation and forms: Oler is irregular in several tenses. In the present indicative, the forms are huelo, hueles, huele, olemos, oléis, huelen. The preterite tense is olí, oliste, olió, olimos, olisteis, olieron. The imperfect is olía, olías, olía, olíamos, olíais, olían. The past participle is olido, used with haber to form compound tenses (he olido, has olido, etc.). The future and conditional tenses are regular in their endings but use a stem variation: oleré, olerás, olerá, oleremos, oleréis, olerán; olería, olerías, olería, oleríamos, oleríais, olerían. The present subjunctive uses the forms huelas, huela, hulemos, hueláis, huelan, with yo huela as the first-person form. The verb’s irregularities are a common feature across its conjugation, and learners often consult a table for complete forms.

Notes: Oler compounds with other verbs (olfatear, oler a algo) to express more precise nuances of scent, and it interacts with accents and spelling rules typical of Spanish verbs.