French grammar · Intermediate
Sentir Bon vs. Se Sentir Bien: Smelling Good and Feeling Well in French
Sentir bon means to smell good and describes what other people notice about you. Se sentir bien means to feel well and describes what you notice about yourself. The reflexive pronoun changes the meaning, and it also changes the word that follows: bon with sentir, bien with se sentir.
Ces fleurs sentent bon, mais je ne me sens pas bien.
These flowers smell nice, but I don't feel well.
What it is
One verb, two directions. Without a pronoun, sentir points outwards: it is about a smell coming off something, or a sensation reaching you. With a pronoun, se sentir points inwards: it reports your own physical or emotional state. The pronoun is doing the whole job, so leaving it out reverses the meaning.
Tu sens bon. — You smell nice. Tu te sens bien ? — Are you feeling all right?
How to spot it
Look for the pronoun first, then check the word after the verb. No pronoun goes with bon; a pronoun goes with bien.
- Cette soupe sent bon. — This soup smells good.
- Je ne me sens pas bien. — I don't feel well.
- Ça sent le brûlé. — There's a smell of burning.
- Elle se sent fatiguée. — She feels tired.
Je me sens bon would say that you find your own smell pleasant, which is almost certainly not the sentence you wanted.
Sentir Bon vs. Se Sentir Bien Quick Reference
The two verbs and what follows each
| French | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| sentir bon | to smell good | bon stays invariable |
| sentir mauvais | to smell bad | mauvais stays invariable |
| sentir + noun | to smell of something | ça sent la vanille |
| sentir + object | to smell something | je sens le café |
| se sentir bien | to feel well | bien is an adverb |
| se sentir mal | to feel unwell | also: to feel faint |
| se sentir + adjective | to feel a certain way | the adjective agrees |
| ressentir | to feel deeply | for emotions and effects |
Common Sentir Bon vs. Se Sentir Bien Examples in French
Each structure in sentences you would actually say:
Smelling Good or Bad
- Ces roses sentent très bon.
- These roses smell lovely.
- Ça sent mauvais dans la cave.
- It smells bad in the cellar.
- Tu sens bon, c'est quoi ?
- You smell nice, what is it?
- Le linge sent bon la lavande.
- The washing smells of lavender.
Bon and mauvais never agree here, because they describe the smelling rather than the thing that smells.
Smelling Of Something
- Ça sent le poisson.
- It smells of fish.
- Cette pièce sent le renfermé.
- This room smells stuffy.
- Son manteau sent la cigarette.
- His coat smells of cigarettes.
- Ça sent le printemps.
- It feels like spring is coming.
The noun follows with a definite article and no preposition. French does not say sentir de.
Feeling Well or Unwell
- Je me sens beaucoup mieux.
- I feel much better.
- Il ne se sentait pas bien hier soir.
- He wasn't feeling well last night.
- Tu te sens comment ?
- How are you feeling?
- Elle s'est sentie mal dans le métro.
- She felt faint on the underground.
Se sentir mal often means to feel faint rather than simply unhappy. For low spirits, French says se sentir triste or ne pas avoir le moral.
Feeling a Particular Way
- Je me sens prête.
- I feel ready.
- Ils se sentent responsables.
- They feel responsible.
- Elle se sent capable de tout.
- She feels capable of anything.
- Je me sens chez moi ici.
- I feel at home here.
Here the adjective describes the subject, so it does agree: je me sens prête with a feminine speaker.
Why the Words After the Verb Differ
The pronoun decides whether what follows describes the action or the subject, and that decides between bon and bien.
Sentir Bon Uses an Adverbial Adjective
In sentir bon, the word bon is not describing the flowers; it is describing the smelling. That makes it adverbial, and adverbs never change form, so bon stays as it is even with a plural feminine subject.
Ces fleurs sentent bon.
These flowers smell nice.
sentent bon, never sentent bonnes.
Se Sentir Takes a True Adverb or an Adjective
Se sentir behaves like a being verb. With an adverb it reports how you are (bien, mal, mieux); with an adjective it reports what you are, and the adjective agrees with the subject.
Elles se sentent responsables et elles se sentent bien.
They feel responsible and they feel good.
bien is invariable, an adjective agrees.
Without a Pronoun, Sentir Can Be Transitive
Sentir plus a direct object means to smell or to feel something. The object can be a smell, a physical sensation, or an intuition.
Je sens une odeur de gaz.
I can smell gas.
sentir quelque chose = perceive it.
Sentir Follows the Partir Pattern
Its singular forms drop the t of the stem — je sens, il sent — and the plural restores it: nous sentons, ils sentent. Dormir, partir, sortir and mentir all behave the same way.
Nous sentons le froid entrer.
We can feel the cold coming in.
sen- singular, sent- plural.
The Pronominal Form Takes Être
Se sentir is pronominal, so its compound tenses use être and the participle agrees with the subject, because the pronoun is a direct object.
Elle s'est sentie mal toute la journée.
She felt ill all day.
je me suis senti, elle s'est sentie.
Common Mistakes with Sentir Bon vs. Se Sentir Bien
Incorrect: Je me sens bon aujourd'hui. — I feel good today.
Correct: Je me sens bien aujourd'hui. — I feel good today.
After se sentir you need the adverb bien. Je me sens bon says that you think you smell nice, which is a very different claim.
Incorrect: Ces fleurs sentent bonnes. — These flowers smell nice.
Correct: Ces fleurs sentent bon. — These flowers smell nice.
Bon is describing the smelling rather than the flowers, so it is functioning adverbially and cannot agree. The same happens in parler fort and coûter cher.
Incorrect: Ça sent de la fumée. — It smells of smoke.
Correct: Ça sent la fumée. — It smells of smoke.
Sentir takes the smell as a direct object with a definite article. The de of English smells of has no equivalent here.
Incorrect: Elle a senti mal après le repas. — She felt ill after the meal.
Correct: Elle s'est sentie mal après le repas. — She felt ill after the meal.
Reporting your own state requires the pronominal form, which takes être and agrees with the subject. Without the pronoun the sentence says she smelled bad.
Sentir and Se Sentir Conjugated
The two share every ending. The only differences are the pronoun in front and the auxiliary they use in compound tenses.
Sentir, without a pronoun
The stem drops its t in the singular and takes avoir in the past. The future and conditional are built on the full infinitive.
| Pronoun | présent | imparfait | futur | passé composé |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | sens | sentais | sentirai | ai senti |
| tu | sens | sentais | sentiras | as senti |
| il / elle / on | sent | sentait | sentira | a senti |
| nous | sentons | sentions | sentirons | avons senti |
| vous | sentez | sentiez | sentirez | avez senti |
| ils / elles | sentent | sentaient | sentiront | ont senti |
Je sens and il sent are pronounced identically. Only the written t separates them.
Se sentir, with a pronoun
Everything is the same except the pronoun and the auxiliary. The participle agrees with the subject in compound tenses.
| Pronoun | présent | imparfait | futur | passé composé |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | me sens | me sentais | me sentirai | me suis senti(e) |
| tu | te sens | te sentais | te sentiras | t'es senti(e) |
| il / elle / on | se sent | se sentait | se sentira | s'est senti(e) |
| nous | nous sentons | nous sentions | nous sentirons | nous sommes senti(e)s |
| vous | vous sentez | vous sentiez | vous sentirez | vous êtes senti(e)(s) |
| ils / elles | se sentent | se sentaient | se sentiront | se sont senti(e)s |
Nous nous sentons has the subject and the pronoun side by side. Both are needed and neither can be dropped.
The verbs that follow the same pattern
Sentir belongs to a small family of -ir verbs that drop the final consonant of the stem in the singular instead of adding -iss- in the plural.
| Pronoun | je | nous |
|---|---|---|
| sentir | je sens | nous sentons |
| partir | je pars | nous partons |
| sortir | je sors | nous sortons |
| dormir | je dors | nous dormons |
| mentir | je mens | nous mentons |
| servir | je sers | nous servons |
Contrast finir, which adds a syllable in the plural: nous finissons. These verbs never do.
Ressentir and the Sentir Idioms
A related verb for emotions, and a set of fixed phrases that have drifted a long way from smelling.
Ressentir for emotions and effects
Ressentir is transitive and describes experiencing something inwardly, usually a feeling or a consequence. It is stronger and more deliberate than sentir.
- J'ai ressenti une profonde tristesse.
- I felt a deep sadness.
- Elle ressent encore les effets du traitement.
- She's still feeling the effects of the treatment.
- Il n'a rien ressenti.
- He felt nothing.
Ressentir always takes an object. To say how you are in general, you still need se sentir.
Intuition and dislike
Sentir plus a clause or an object can express a hunch, and in the negative it becomes a strong expression of dislike.
- Je sens qu'il va pleuvoir.
- I have a feeling it's going to rain.
- Ce projet, je ne le sens pas.
- I've got a bad feeling about this project.
- Je ne peux pas le sentir.
- I can't stand him.
Ne pas pouvoir sentir quelqu'un is strong and informal. It has nothing to do with smell in practice.
Faire sentir and se faire sentir
Faire sentir means to make someone aware of something, and se faire sentir means that an effect is beginning to show.
- Il m'a fait sentir que j'étais de trop.
- He made me feel I was in the way.
- Les effets commencent à se faire sentir.
- The effects are starting to be felt.
- La fatigue se fait sentir.
- The tiredness is starting to tell.
In se faire sentir, the participle fait is invariable, as it always is in the causative construction.
Sentir Bon vs. Se Sentir Bien FAQs
- What's the difference between sentir bon and se sentir bien?
- Sentir bon is about the smell you give off: tu sens bon means you smell nice. Se sentir bien is about your own state: tu te sens bien means you feel well. The pronoun is what separates them.
- Why is bon invariable in sentir bon?
- Because it is describing the act of smelling rather than the subject, which makes it adverbial. Adverbs never agree, so ces fleurs sentent bon keeps bon whatever the gender or number of the subject.
- How do you say I don't feel well in French?
- Je ne me sens pas bien. The pronoun goes inside the negation, and bien is the adverb. If you feel faint or nauseous, je me sens mal is the usual phrase.
- How do you say it smells of coffee?
- Ça sent le café. The smell is a direct object with a definite article, and there is no preposition. The pattern also gives ça sent le brûlé and ça sent la mer.
- When do you use ressentir instead of sentir?
- For an emotion or a lingering effect you experience inwardly: j'ai ressenti de la peur, elle ressent encore la douleur. Ressentir always needs an object, so it cannot replace se sentir for describing your general state.