Difference between かおり and におい In a TV show I am watching (, perhaps many of you have heard of it) the gentleman is about to drink some coffee but pauses to savour the aroma. He says > Which I translate as "good aroma". Am I right in saying that is simply "smell"? So perhaps > a smell is coming from the kitchen and > an aroma is coming from the kitchen (this may not be correct Japanese, please correct me) So in example #2 it is implied there is a nice smell like food is cooking ("aroma") but in example #1 something could be burning or rotting.

Yes, `` is just "a smell". It is in fact neutral, but without `` in front of it, I usually perceive it as a bad one (as I also do with "smell" in English). Like if you say, "What a smell!" in English, I think most people would take this to mean a bad smell rather than a good one.

Also, to say "smells" or "producing a smell", the form is **** .

> * → A smell is coming from the kitchen.
> * → An aroma/good smell is coming from the kitchen.
>


Note that you will often hear `` even though it's kind of redundant.