Animals in Chinese

In this Rocket Chinese lesson we'll be taking a trip to the zoo – 动物园 (dòngwùyuán) – to talk about all types of animals – 动物 (dòngwù!) You might have a dog or cat at home, but I bet you don't have an elephant. You'd have to take a zoo tour while in China to see some of these animals.

After this lesson you'll be able to talk about the animals in your life and also about the rare ones you don't see every day.

Let's get started with this free lesson on animals in Chinese!

Resources for further reading:

Pronouncing animals in Chinese

Practice Your Pronunciation With Rocket Record

Rocket Record lets you perfect your Chinese pronunciation. Just listen to the native speaker audio and then use the microphone icon to record yourself. Once you’re done, you’ll get a score out of 100 on your pronunciation and can listen to your own audio playback. (Use a headset mic for best results.) Problems? Click here!

gǒu

dog

māo

cat

niǎo

bird

horse

马驹

mǎjū

pony

奶牛

nǎiniú

dairy cattle

老鼠

lǎoshǔ

mouse

猴子

hóuzi

monkey

zhū

pig

鹿

deer

大象

dàxiàng

elephant

长颈鹿

chángjǐnglù

giraffe

山羊

shānyáng

goat

niú

ox

猩猩

xīngxing

gorilla

动物

dòngwù

animals

动物园

dòngwùyuán

zoo

How did you do? A lot of these animal words sound totally different from to the names in English. So you still need to practice, practice, practice to get the pronunciation right! Feel free to go through this lesson again and say the words out loud until you have animal names perfected. Here are a few recommended Chinese lessons to try next!

回头见!Huítóu jiàn!

Lin Ping: Rocket Chinese

Make It Stick With Rocket Reinforcement

Reinforce your learning from this lesson with the Rocket Reinforcement activities!