It’s well-documented that Germans struggle to pronounce “squirrel” in English. But what goes around comes around, and it’s equally likely that you, an English speaker, will find your mouth proverbially full of acorns as you try to pronounce Eichhörnchen, the German word for “squirrel.” There are many reasons to learn your German animal names, but being able to effortlessly roll this off your tongue might be the best one. The second-best reason might be understanding the weird, literal logic of animal nomenclature in German.
Whether you’re merely trying to round out your German vocabulary or you’re looking for fun new words to practice, the following list can serve as your initial guide to animal names as you learn German. Just click on the play button to hear how they’re pronounced by a native speaker. As a fun bonus, scroll to the bottom to hear what animal noises sound like in German!
General Animal Vocab
the pet — das Haustier
the fur — das Fell
the farm animal — das Nutztier
the sea creature — das Meerestier
the wild animal — das Wildtier
German Animal Words
the fish — der Fisch
the dog — der Hund
the cat — die Katze
the mouse — die Maus
the rabbit — das Kaninchen
the duck — die Ente
the chicken — das Huhn
the cow — die Kuh
the pig — das Schwein
the sheep — das Schaf
the goat — die Ziege
the horse — das Pferd
the elephant — der Elefant
the camel — das Kamel
the goose — die Gans
the pigeon — die Taube
the bird — der Vogel
the penguin — der Pinguin
the parrot — der Papagei
the owl — die Eule
the ostrich — der Strauß
the dolphin — der Delfin
the octopus — der Oktopus
the blue whale — der Blauwal
the bear — der Bär
the wolf — der Wolf
the crocodile — das Krokodil
the snake — die Schlange
the frog — der Frosch
the squirrel — das Eichhörnchen
the giraffe — die Giraffe
Animal Sounds In German
woof — wau
meow — miau
cock-a-doodle-doo — kikeriki
quack-quack — nak nak
moo — muh
ee-aw — iah
ribbit — quak
baa — mäh
caw — krah
cheep-cheep — piep piep
cuckoo — kuckuck
cluck-cluck — gack gack