El pan recién horneado huele muy bien.

The freshly baked bread smells very good.

Breakdown of El pan recién horneado huele muy bien.

• el pan: the bread
• muy: very
• hornear: to bake
• oler: to smell
• recién: freshly

Questions & Answers about El pan recién horneado huele muy bien.

What does recién horneado mean in this sentence?

Recién horneado translates to “just baked” or “freshly baked.” The adverb recién emphasizes that the bread has recently come out of the oven. You’ll often see recién used this way to indicate something that was done very recently, for example: recién hecho (“just made”) or recién casado (“just married”).

Why is it bien and not bueno in huele muy bien?

In Spanish, bien is an adverb meaning “well,” while bueno is an adjective meaning “good.” When describing how something smells, you use bien (an adverb) because it modifies the verb oler (“to smell”) rather than describing the bread itself. If you wanted to describe the bread as “good bread,” you would use bueno — for example: Este pan es muy bueno (“This bread is very good”).

What is the subject of the sentence El pan recién horneado huele muy bien?

The subject is El pan recién horneado (the freshly baked bread). In Spanish, the subject usually comes at the beginning of the sentence, and the verb here is huele, from the verb oler (to smell).

Can recién be used before other past participles?

Yes! Recién commonly appears with many past participles to convey the idea of “just” or “newly.” Some common examples include recién nacido (“newborn”), recién pintado (“just painted”), or recién llegado (“just arrived”).

Is muy always used for emphasis like “very,” or can it have other meanings?

Muy generally means “very,” and it’s used to intensify adjectives and adverbs. In huele muy bien, it emphasizes that it “smells very good.” A similar usage would be muy rápido (“very fast”) or muy importante (“very important”). While muy typically translates to “very,” in some expressions it can carry a slightly different nuance depending on context, but “very” is a solid translation in most cases.