This paper is a practical application of a valence theory on adjectival analysis from a lexicological point of view. The starting assumption is to consider —in notional terms— the adjective as predicate. This implies an identification between the nature of the verb and that of the adjective. After a short introduction on the methodological consequences of this statement, a group of adjectival lexical units is analysed from a contrastive view-point. The Spanish and English adjectives considered here in onomasiological and semasiological terms are which fall under the range of meaning "having a bad smell".