Animals and their sounds (Animales y sus sonidos)

Children all over the world love two things: animals and the noises they make. The good news is that you can learn both in English at the same time. In this reading you will meet the names of common animals and the sounds they make — and you will discover that not every language says it the same way!

The animals

Read the words and say them out loud:

dog → perro cat → gato bird → pájaro, ave fish → pez cow → vaca horse → caballo chicken → gallina, pollo pig → cerdo

«Fish» is singular and plural: you can say «one fish, two fish». No «fishes» needed on the beach!

The sounds they make

Here comes the fun part. Listen to the English sounds:

A dog says «woof, woof». (Guau, guau.) A cat says «meow». (Miau.) A cow says «moo». (Muu.) A bird says «tweet, tweet». (Pío, pío.) A pig says «oink, oink». (Oinc, oinc.)

To make a sentence, use «says»: «A dog says woof.» In some countries the sounds are different, but in English these are the ones you will hear in books and songs.

Big and small

You can add simple adjectives to describe animals:

big → grande small → pequeño fast → rápido slow → lento

«The horse is fast.» «The turtle is slow.» Now you can say more than the name: you can describe!

Be an animal detective

Point at an animal — a real one, a picture, or in a cartoon — and say two sentences in English: its name and its sound, or its name and how it is. «A cat. A cat says meow.» «A dog. The dog is big.» Do it with five animals today and you will have a whole zoo of new English words in your head.