Quiz: Can You Guess The Animal By Its German Name?

You can learn a lot about a language from what it calls its animals. In the case of naming German animals, you’ll learn that the language is logical and literal, and many animals are named using compounds of other words. Take the word “Schnabeltier,” for example. Tier means “animal,” and then you simply add a preceding word to describe the animal. Schnabel means “beak,” so Schnabeltier is a “beak animal,” also known as a platypus.

Using this knowledge of how German animal-naming works, try to identify the animals in the quiz below. It may be a little hard if you’ve never learned any German, but you might be able to figure it out using cognates. Good luck!