I came across a sentence on duolingo that I am not sure about and I wanted to discuss it here (the discussion on duolingo wasn't helping, lernu is much better for grammar anyway). The problem was to translate the sentence "Our dinner smells good," and their answer was "Nia vespermanĝo odoras bone." Now, I know that in English we use the verb to smell in different ways, either as the act of sensing a smell or the act of emitting a smell, with odori being the latter. This was the reason given for the use of "bone" instead of "bona" as you might expect if you were just literally translating word for word.

However, if you are using the adverb form aren't you describing the verb odoras as being done well, rather than the resulting smell as being good? That is, wouldn't "Nia vespermanĝo odoras bone" mean something like "Our dinner emits scent well"? It seems to me that we may still want to use the adjective form since the thing we are describing as good is not the verb, but an implied smell coming from our dinner.

I am curious what other people think about this. I have probably spent too much time thinking about it myself. Also, I am aware of the word bonodori meaning "to smell good", which could obviously be used to circumnavigate this issue, but I'm still curious.

A good way of smelling (odori) would be to smell good. The usage - you can search the Tekstaro yourself - favours the adverb.

In English which uses smell for odori and flari, 'It smells well' would likely be interpreted as flari (unless of course context showed that the 'well' was to be interpreted as in good health).

If you wanted to translate the idea that your dinner gives off a powerful smell, I might say that the vespermanĝo forte odoras,

If you were describing the efficacy of some plug-in device, such as are advertised on TV sometimes, perhaps Ĝi odorumas efike

Dear Algebroist.

Your observations are spot on. Take these two examples:

A) Li alvenis sana. = He arrived healthy.
B) Li alvenis rapide. = He arrived quickly.

In A we have an adjective which is used as a predicate noun and hence describes the state or a quality of the subject. In B we have an adverb which is used as an adverbial and hence describes the manner in which the verb is carried out. These two examples are clear and there is no confusion about when to use an adjective and when to use an adverb.

Things get a bit messy with verbs related to perception, e.g. smell, sound, look. Zamenhof used both adjectives and adverbs with those verbs, and it eludes me, which was his reasoning when to use which.

Zamenhof:
Sed la diablo aspektas malbele, ne penvaloras lin vidi.

ŝi aspektis tre dormema.

I concur, that using a predicate noun (marked with -a) seems more natural, because we are not talking about the manner in which the dinner emits its aromatic substances, but whether or not the smell appears to be good and bad (not well or badly).

Dankon!

Both of your responses answer my question well. I am still inclined to use -a, but I think you make a good point sudanglo that being good at smelling (odori) could certainly be interpreted as giving off a good smell.

For what it's worth PIV doesn't define bonodori, but gives malbonodori as having a bad smell.

Anyway, surely the thing is that you must take account of established usage (which will have been forged over time and according to what people of different mother tongues have found acceptable).

I could find no examples of an adjective after odori in the whole of the Tekstaro, but many incidences of adverb usage.

After aspekti the usage does seem more mixed. Reading through the examples, I had a sense of why the adjective or the aderb was preferred in each case but couldn't quite put my finger on it.