Base form | Past Simple | Past Participle | |
smell
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smelt
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smelt
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smell
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smelled
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smelled
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-ing form
smelling
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s
smells
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Smelt and smelled are two different spellings of the past tense of the verb “smell,” used to mean “detect the scent of something” or “emit an odor.”
The spelling tends to vary based on whether you’re using UK or US English:
In UK English, both “smelled” and “smelt” are commonly used. In US English, “smelled” is standard, and “smelt” is generally not accepted.
'smelled' would be much more commonly used within American English usage, whereas 'smelt' would be much more common in British English usage. Other verbs that follow on with this pattern are 'learn' and 'spell', just to name two.