Animals in German

Tiere — Animals in German!#

Animals are called Tiere (say it like: TEER-eh) in German. One animal is a Tier (say it like: TEER). Children in Germany love to talk about animals, and learning animal words is a great way to grow your German vocabulary!

Pets — Haustiere#

Let's start with some common pets — Haustiere (say it like: HOWS-teer-eh):

Did you notice the small words before each animal? Der, die, and das all mean "the" in German! German has three kinds of "the" — we will learn more about this soon.

Der Hund — the dog. Dös "Hund" remind you of the English word "hound"? A hound is a type of dog! These languages really are cousins.

Die Katze — the cat. This sounds a little like "cat" — just with different sounds at the end.

Der Fisch — the fish. This sounds almost exactly like English! Easy!

Farm Animals — Bauernhoftiere#

Here are some animals you might find on a farm:

Das Pferd — the horse. Say it: PFAIRT. The "pf" sound at the beginning is unique to German!

Die Kuh — the cow. This sounds just like "coo" — like a pigeon cooing!

Animal Sounds in German#

Did you know that animals "speak" differently in German?

• A dog says wau wau (not "woof woof"!)
• A cat says miau (just like English "meow"!)
• A cow says muh (like "moo"!)

Funny, isn't it? Try making animal sounds the German way!