# Verb Pachnieć/To Smell



## Kos

Hi all! 
I have a question about the Polish verb "pachnieć"  
I know that it translates to "to smell", but in the sense of, "to emit an odor." Usually when I see this verb it is accompanied by "jak" + nominiative case or with a noun in the instrumental case.  My question is, how would you say that "something smells like something"? 
For example: "It smells like flowers outside" or "The room smells musty."?  Would we say "Pachnie kwiatami" or "Pachnie jak kwiaty"? 
Also, would we use "pachnieć" for "The room smells musty" - "W pokoju pachnie stęchły." or some other verb such as smierdzieć?
Sorry if this is a confusing post  , but I've been wondering about this for a long time, and I have faith that you all can help me. 
Many Thanks
-Kos


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## jazyk

Podczas gdy czekasz na odpowiedzi, znajdziesz ciekawe informacje w słowniku na górze.


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## PawelBierut

If something smells nice we usually say _pachnie. _On the other hand if sth smells bad you should hear _śmierdzi_. 
So 
_pachnie __kwiatamie _or less often _pachnie jak kwiaty_
_śmierdzi stęchlizną_ (_w pokoju pachnie stęchły_ doesn't sound good and isn't grammatically correct).

You can always say that sth has the flavour of sth:
_coś ma zapach czegoś._

_coś ma zapach kwiatów.
coś ma zapach stęchlizny
_


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## Thomas1

Śmierdzi stęchlizną is OK, however, sometimes it may be too direct, the verb śmierdzieć literally means stink. So instead of it you can use: czuć stęchlizną.

I've just found this:
it smells musty, it's got a musty smell to pachnie or to czuć stęchlizną
Source: PWN

I have some misgivings as to whether pachnie stęchlizną would be said in modern Polish. To me it sounds strange, I think the word zapach may be used in reference sources and then it is neutral, but let’s see what others will say.

I agree with what Paweł said about pachnieć, it is most often used with pleasant odours. One example I can think of where pachnieć has negative connotations is "nieładnie pachnie", but I take it as an euphemistic way to say "śmierdzi".


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## kknd

_Odour/odor_ in English seems to be neutral term for something you can smell; Polish _odór_ (also _fetor_ as in English is ok) is rather false friend here: it's a little bit sophisticated name for _stink_ (_smród_ in Polish). As suggested above _zapach_ has strong connotations of pleasurable smell, it's often translated as _fragrance_; other word, _woń_, is a little bit old-fasioned way of speaking about smell (also often pleasurable but not necessarily).

Because of quite frequent use with _zapach_ (note the same stem!) _pachnąć/pachnieć_ also have a strong affiliation with enjoyable scent. _cuchnąć_ is rather common informal way of telling about oposite, _śmierdzieć_ is even more casual (it can be perceived a little bit inappriopriate in some contexts; note common stem with _smród_); very informal terms (used by young), but surely not offensive, for these are _capić_ (probably deriven from _cap_: male goat—buck/billie or wheter) and _walić_ (lit. to strike/hit).


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## NotNow

PawelBierut said:


> _pachnie __kwiatamie _or less often _pachnie jak kwiaty_


 
Pawel, I think you made a typo. Shouldn't _kwiatamie_ be _kwiatami_? 

I'm just checking.


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## PawelBierut

Yes *NotNow*, you're right. It should be _kwiatami_.


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## Kos

Thanks everyone. As jazyk said, I checked the dictionary on this forum and found some helpful information, but I was still a bit confused. I had a feeling that pachnieć described pleasant smells, but I just wanted to be sure. Thank you for the correction on "pachnie stęchły" by the way. I made the sentence in a bit of a rush by searching the adjective "musty" in the dictionary above. I forgot to consider that the adjective would go in the instrumental case and that pachnieć probably wasn't the best verb choice. I knew something seemed weird about it.


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## Thomas1

Kos said:


> [...] Thank you for the correction on "pachnie stęchły" by the way. I made the sentence in a bit of a rush by searching the adjective "musty" in the dictionary above. I forgot to consider that the adjective would go in the instrumental case and that pachnieć probably wasn't the best verb choice. I knew something seemed weird about it.


Just a small clarification, Kos:
Unlike English, we don't use adjectives in _The room smells musty_ kind of constructions. We use either adverbs or nouns.
_The cake smells nice. Ładnie pachnie to ciasto.
The room smells musty. Pokój pachnie stęchło/stęchle._ (literally, but the adverb stęchło/stęchle doesn't exist in Polish, I've just created it), _W pokoju czuć stęchlizną/ jest stęchłe powietrze. _(idiomatic Polish).


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## Ben Jamin

kknd said:


> Because of quite frequent use with _zapach_ (note the same stem!) _pachnąć/pachnieć_ also have a strong affiliation with enjoyable scent. _cuchnąć_ is rather common informal way of telling about oposite, _śmierdzieć_ is even more casual (it can be perceived a little bit inappriopriate in some contexts; note common stem with _smród_); very informal terms (used by young), but surely not offensive, for these are _capić_ (probably deriven from _cap_: male goat—buck/billie or wheter) and _walić_ (lit. to strike/hit).


 
It is, however, important to remember that "_pachnieć" _and_ "zapach"_ are basically neutral. In chemistry we always use "przykry, ostry, przyjemny" zapach", "bez zapachu", etc. "Zapach" can always be classified both as "przyjemny" (nice),  and "okropny" (terrible). The "strong affiliation" you mentioned may just be a personal idiosyncrasy.


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## Thomas1

Ben Jamin said:


> It is, however, important to remember that "_pachnieć" _and_ "zapach"_ are basically neutral. In chemistry we always use "przykry, ostry, przyjemny" zapach", "bez zapachu", etc. "Zapach" can always be classified both as "przyjemny" (nice),  and "okropny" (terrible). The "strong affiliation" you mentioned may just be a personal idiosyncrasy.


It isn't, it's within the connoations of this word. I suppose much depends on who uses it. I will hazard a guess that the everyday usage has the connotation of a nice odour most of the time whereas reference sources and scientits use also it as a neutral word.


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## Ben Jamin

Thomas1 said:


> It isn't, it's within the connoations of this word. I suppose much depends on who uses it. I will hazard a guess that the everyday usage has the connotation of a nice odour most of the time whereas reference sources and scientits use also it as a neutral word.


 
All of us that write and read this forum have our own picture of many a word that can vary from one individual to another. They vary with age, education, profession, how much and what we read, region we live in, and also quite haphasardly. The distribution of individual opinions at this forum is probably not representative. It would be interesting to have some statistics about the individual connotations of this word.


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## kknd

Of course it's worth noting, as said above, that _zapach_ and _pachnieć_ are technically neutral, especially if someone is describing the scent further. I was talking about situation when one uses only _zapach_ or _pachnieć_, ie. _co tak pachnie?_ or _czuję zapach…_ opposed to _co tak cuchnie/śmierdzi?_ and _czuję smród…_.

I think that there is something in statement that perceiving is person-depentant, but I'd like to point other source of possible semantic shift of those words in Polish: mass-media (especially due to deodorant ads) and pollitical correctness (probably to some extent: we don't talk about bad things, eh?). Does anybody has thoughts about this matter?


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## Thomas1

It's good you both have pointed this out. I gave myself a browse of a dictionary and here is something interesting:pachnieć ndk ~nę, ~niesz, ~nij, ~niał, ~nieli
 wydzielać woń, zapach (zwykle przyjemny) być pełnym przyjemnego zapachu
 Pachnieć ładnie, mocno, nieładnie, odurzająco, oszałamiająco, ostro, upajająco, smakowicie.​Słownik języka polskiego PWN c Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN SA

So it looks like the verb "pachnieć' does indeed have the meaning of a nice smell. Zapach, the noun, doesn't have this connotation:zapach m III, D. -u; lm M. -y
 1. odczuwana powonieniem właściwość ciał lotnych (lub substancji zawierających ciała lotne); woń
 Duszący, mdlący, odurzający, ostry, przenikliwy, przykry, upajający zapach.​Słownik języka polskiego PWN c Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN SA





kknd said:


> Of course it's worth noting, as said above, that _zapach_ and _pachnieć_ are technically neutral, especially if someone is describing the scent further. I was talking about situation when one uses only _zapach_ or _pachnieć_, ie. _co tak pachnie?_ or _czuję zapach…_ opposed to _co tak cuchnie/śmierdzi?_ and _czuję smród…_.


I think even if you say "ale pachnie" you associate it with a nice odour in everyday, no?



> I think that there is something in statement that perceiving is person-depentant, but I'd like to point other source of possible semantic shift of those words in Polish: mass-media (especially due to deodorant ads) and pollitical correctness (probably to some extent: we don't talk about bad things, eh?). Does anybody has have thoughts about this matter?


I don't watch commercials.  However, I suppose you may be on to something. Media has a great influence on how people talk too.

Excuse me my boldness to correct you.


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## kknd

Thomas1 said:


> I think even if you say "ale pachnie" you associate it with a nice odour in everyday, no?


Of course!  Nice to have this straight by means of reliable dictionary! 



Thomas1 said:


> Excuse me my boldness to correct you.



I see you haven't read what I wrote in my signature!  Thanks! Could you explain me why I was incorrect ('anybody' seems to be singular… )


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## PawelBierut

It's quite simple and you probably know it that if you use the auxiliary verb _do_ (while asking a question in this case) in the third person you do not change the infinitive form of the "main" verb.


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## pipino

ihihi
I would say that, as you said, in polish we use a verb *pachnieć* when something emits an smell/scent and a sentence has the nice conotations. In example "Za oknem pachną kwiaty". "W powietrzu pachniało wiosną". On the other hand in the sentence "The room smels musty" i would use a verb "czuć". "W pokoju czuć stęchliznę", "Czuję smród starych skarpetek" "It smells like the old socks". So when you think about the flowers or something comparably nice you use "pachnieć". In a case of odors or stinks, better is to use "czuć".
Of course a verb "czuć" has more, more important meanings but this is an other story.
Best regards



Kos said:


> Hi all!
> I have a question about the Polish verb "pachnieć"
> I know that it translates to "to smell", but in the sense of, "to emit an odor." Usually when I see this verb it is accompanied by "jak" + nominiative case or with a noun in the instrumental case. My question is, how would you say that "something smells like something"?
> For example: "It smells like flowers outside" or "The room smells musty."? Would we say "Pachnie kwiatami" or "Pachnie jak kwiaty"?
> Also, would we use "pachnieć" for "The room smells musty" - "W pokoju pachnie stęchły." or some other verb such as smierdzieć?
> Sorry if this is a confusing post  , but I've been wondering about this for a long time, and I have faith that you all can help me.
> Many Thanks
> -Kos


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## Kos

Thank you all very much for the advice.  This turned out to be a more interesting topic than I thought!


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## Ben Jamin

pipino said:


> ihihi
> I would say that, as you said, in polish we use a verb *pachnieć* when something emits an smell/scent and a sentence has the nice conotations. In example "Za oknem pachną kwiaty". "W powietrzu pachniało wiosną". On the other hand in the sentence "The room smels musty" i would use a verb "czuć". "W pokoju czuć stęchliznę", "Czuję smród starych skarpetek" "It smells like the old socks". So when you think about the flowers or something comparably nice you use "pachnieć". In a case of odors or stinks, better is to use "czuć".
> Of course a verb "czuć" has more, more important meanings but this is an other story.
> Best regards


 
I will insist that in cultivated Polish speech we would rather say "Czuję brzydki zapach starych skarpetek". "Brzydki zapach, zły zapach", these are the expressions I have been using during my whole (relatively long) life, when not willing to sound coarse or offensive. "Smród" and "odór" are quite strong words in Polish, and have been usually avoided in polite conversation. Maybe the younger generation has another praxis.


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## Thomas1

In a polite conversation I would avoid bringing up the matter of stinking socks altogether (I can't believe I'm going into this,  but for the sake of international understanding...). You could say somethig like "let's open the window" "może otworzymy okno".

If I know, I can safely bring up the matter, I could say "ale tu daje skarpetami" or "ale tu coś daje". These are informal, but not so coarse or offensive.

"Czuję smród starych skarpetek" is somewhat artificial to me, because the rough word "smród" doesn't quite match with the rest. Other people may use it, of course. I guess the same idea would be more likely to be expressed by other formulations, like "Ale tu jedzie skarpetami" or even more direct, verging on being rude/vulgar, "ale komuś jebią skarpety" (caveat: this is actually rude and vulgar, I strongly disadivise against its usage).


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## kknd

You're close to become my favourite (front-runner), Thomas1! (I mean 'faworyt'; of course perceive it all positive!) I even checked in dictionary new (for me until now; I hope I'll remember it) phrase: I was _splitting/bursting_ my _sides laughing_ when reading this! Splendid answer (every sentence kicks rear)—I wait for more of those in the future!


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## Ben Jamin

Thomas1 said:


> I guess the same idea would be more likely to be expressed by other formulations, like "Ale tu jedzie skarpetami" or even more direct, verging on being rude/vulgar, "ale komuś jebią skarpety" (caveat: this is actually rude and vulgar, I strongly disadivise against its usage).


 
For me this kind of expressions remind of social groups of type "dresiarz", convicts, unskilled labourers (spade wielders), or junior high school students in a larger group trying to impress each other how rude they can be.

Remember that our foreign discussion partners get confused when confronted with substandard, vulgar language, while they look for advice concerning standard, polite speach.

By the way, i would hesitate to say right out :"Tutaj brzydko pachnie, we must do something about it" even at a diplomatic meeting, no need of more euphemism, but I wouldn's use words like "czuc'" or "s'mierdzi".


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