El olor.......

[laepelba]

Hopefully another simple question....... ¡Ojalá!

Cuando se usa "el olor", ¿se dice "el olor de ______" o se dice "el olor a _____"?

Por ejemplo:
- "El olor de enchiladas circula por toda la casa."
o
- "El olor a enchiladas circula por toda la casa."

[irmamar]

Look here.

[laepelba]

Irma!! Thank you for finding a link for me ... but my Spanish is WAY too weak ... it would take me hours and hours to read all of that!!! Is there any way you could summarize it for me? I was really hoping it would be a simple question................

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Lou Ann:

It will be good for you to try and follow the whole webpage, but basically, to reply your question: the usual preposition for "olor" is "a". It is less often followed by "de". And both are correct.


I think "de" is mostly used for specifying the object from which the odor comes:

Olor a perro -> the odor of any dog. ≠ El olor del Bo. -> The odor of the White House dog.
("El" is inserted to make a difference on the proper name of a person and that of an animal.)

Olor a naranjas -> The odor of oranges. ≠ El olor de la naranja que me estoy comiendo. -> The odor of the orange I'm eating.

Olor a perfume. -> The odor of (any) perfume. ≠ El olor de tu perfume. -> The odor of your perfume.


So, for your example:

"El olor a enchiladas circula por toda la casa" is the most common expression and the most general.

For me, if you use "de", in common speech, your sentence should be "El olor de las enchiladas circula por toda la casa" -> The odor of the enchiladas that have just been cooked.

"El olor de enchiladas" sounds more poetic like in "el olor de enchiladas me da nostalgia de mi país". *insert sad and dreamy face here*

[laepelba]

Thanks, Malilia - very helpful!

I started to read the page, but got very stuck on the following (which is near the beginning):

A menudo va seguido de un complemento introducido por a, que especifica la clase de olor: «El olor del boj, olor a perro mojado, estaba en la habitación»

When it said that "introducido por a" and then gave an example with "del", I was more confused than before. NOW it makes sense, and I'll try again to read that page. (But it will take me a very long time!)

Thanks again (both of you!!)

[ookami]

«El olor del boj, olor a perro mojado, estaba en la habitación»
«The odor of the Boj, [same] odor of wet dog, was in the room»

You understand it well I think. That's(italic) the part of the sentence that Rae wanted to be the example of the aclaration. Yes, they found a confusing example to foreigners. (I bealive they wanted to show how you can use two forms in one sentence, or something like that)

[irmamar]

El olor de las flores enamora.
El olor de las cosas, de los animales, de las personas.

Aquí huele a flores (hay un olor a flores)
Huele (hay olor) a cosas, a animales, a personas.

Does it help?

[laepelba]

Yes - now I am getting it. Thanks to all of you. It actually makes a LOT of sense. I am learning that often when there is one word or one way of saying something in English, there are a variety of ways to express more of the nuances of meaning in Spanish. What a rich language!!