Smelt/smell

Read the following in a book review:

"As Richard Perren says, the meat industy has smelled liked money for a long time"

Should it not be smelt instead of smelled?

Rob

Yo Rob


Smelt is indeed correct. Why? Because your sentence makes use of 'has', which is a verb. For instance: "He smelled the roses"; "He has smelt the roses".


Spongebob

Hmm, ''He smelt the roses'' is also correct right?

And, this is the first time I have heard of the word 'smelled''..

Smelt is an alternative to smelled and is preferable, though not obligatory, in British English. At the end of the day, the sound difference is only between and . The verbs that follow a this pattern of having regular / irregular alternatives with this t/d sound ending are:
infinitive                     irreg past tense and participle      regular past tense and participle

burn	burnt	burnt                    burned
dream	dreamt	dreamt              dreamed
lean	leant	leant                    leaned
leap	leapt	leapt                    leaped
learn	learnt	learnt                   learned
smell	smelt	smelt                   smelled
spell	spelt	spelt                    spelled
spill	spilt	spilt                     spilled
spoil	spoilt	spoilt                   spoiled

In General American English there is a preference to make these verbs regular, which is also acceptable in British English (no one can say you're wrong for using these words) but not usually used. I don't know if, in America, they would tell you that the irregular spelling is wrong or whether it would be accepted as an alternative.