Japanese Animal Words and the Sounds They Make

Animals are alive, so they take iru

The first grammar rule for animals is the verb of existence. Living, moving things use いる iru and objects use ある aru, so there is a cat is neko ga imasu, never neko ga arimasu. Fish on a plate are food and take aru; the same fish in a tank takes iru. The verb for keeping a pet is 飼う kau, written with a different kanji from 買う kau, to buy, and used in the te-imasu form: inu o katte imasu, I have a dog. Both are pronounced kau, so the object tells the listener which one you mean.

Counters follow the particle, not the noun: neko o nihiki katte imasu, not nihiki no neko o. The counter-first order exists, but the particle-then-counter order is the neutral spoken one and the one to drill. The counters themselves get a section of their own below.

Pets and farm animals

The pet set is small: 犬 inu dog, 猫 neko cat, うさぎ usagi rabbit, ハムスター hamusutā hamster, 金魚 kingyo goldfish, and 鳥 tori for a pet bird. The farm set is 牛 ushi, 馬 uma, 豚 buta, 鶏 niwatori, 羊 hitsuji and ヤギ yagi. Two words trip learners: tori means bird and also chicken as meat, so the live farm bird is niwatori, and ushi is the animal while 牛肉 gyūniku is the beef. Pet talk recycles a few verbs: 散歩する sanpo suru for walking a dog, 餌をやる esa o yaru for feeding, and 世話をする sewa o suru for looking after.

Animal words at a glance

The counter column gives the everyday choice. Zoos, farms and news reports count large animals with 頭 tō, and vets and breeders sometimes use tō for dogs as well, but in ordinary conversation a pet dog is ippiki. Fish that have become food are counted as portions or pieces, so the counter only matters while the fish is swimming.

Hiki, tō, and wa, and how hiki changes sound

Three counters cover almost every animal. 匹 hiki is the default for anything you could pick up, plus fish and insects. 頭 tō is for animals large enough to need a lead or a field: horses, cows, elephants, bears. 羽 wa is for birds, and by an old convention for rabbits as well, though many speakers now say ippiki for a pet rabbit and nobody will correct you. If you are unsure, hiki is the safe guess.

Hiki is the counter that changes sound. After 1, 6, 8 and 10 the h becomes p and the number shortens: ippiki, roppiki, happiki, juppiki. After 3 and the question word nan it voices to biki: sanbiki, nanbiki. The rest keep plain hiki. Tō barely changes beyond ittō, hattō and juttō, and wa has optional voiced forms after 3, 6, 8 and 10 that you will hear as sanba, roppa, happa and juppa alongside the plain readings.

Wild animals and the ones you meet in Japan

The wild animals that come up in Japanese daily life are not lions and giraffes but the ones that wander into towns. 鹿 shika deer walk the park in Nara, 猿 saru monkeys raid gardens in the hills, イノシシ inoshishi wild boar dig up fields, and 熊 kuma bears appear on warning signs at trailheads. In cities the animals you talk about are カラス karasu crows, スズメ suzume sparrows, 鳩 hato pigeons and the occasional ネズミ nezumi. Two folklore animals, 狐 kitsune the fox and 狸 tanuki the raccoon dog, turn up as shrine statues and in menu names such as kitsune udon.

The verb for an animal turning up where it should not is 出る deru, to come out: kuma ga deta, a bear has appeared, is the standard warning. Mosquitoes and wasps use 刺す sasu, to sting, usually in the passive, and dogs and snakes use 噛む kamu, to bite. Learners often use kamu for mosquitoes, which sounds odd, so pair each verb with its animal from the start.

Insects that mark the seasons

Insects are seasonal vocabulary in Japan. Summer means セミ semi cicadas screaming from every tree, 蚊 ka mosquitoes, and カブトムシ kabutomushi rhinoceros beetles that children keep in plastic cases. Early summer evenings bring 蛍 hotaru fireflies, and autumn brings the chirping of 鈴虫 suzumushi bell crickets. The unwelcome ones are ゴキブリ gokiburi cockroaches and ハチ hachi, which covers both bees and wasps. The general word is 虫 mushi, and mushi ga nigate desu, I am not good with insects, is a sentence many Japanese people will say with feeling.

Sea creatures you will see on a menu

Seafood words are animal words too, and a sushi counter is where most learners meet them. マグロ maguro tuna, サーモン sāmon salmon, エビ ebi prawn, イカ ika squid, タコ tako octopus, ウニ uni sea urchin, イクラ ikura salmon roe, ホタテ hotate scallop, ウナギ unagi eel, and 貝 kai for shellfish in general. Ika and tako are the pair learners swap: ika is the pale, smooth one and tako is the one with purple-edged suckers. Salmon has two names, サーモン sāmon on a sushi menu for the raw fish and 鮭 sake or shake for the grilled fillet at breakfast.

Allergy and preference sentences matter here. 甲殻類 kōkakurui is the formal word for crustaceans on allergen cards, but in speech ebi to kani no arerugī ga arimasu is clearer and gets an immediate reaction. Nama, raw, is the question to ask when you are unsure how something is served.

The sounds animals make

Japanese animal sounds are onomatopoeia, and they attach to the verb 鳴く naku, which covers barking, mewing, singing and chirping for every animal, with と to as the quoting particle. Dogs have their own verb, 吠える hoeru, to bark, but wanwan to naku is also fine. The sound words double as children's names for the animals, so wanwan is doggy and nyanko is kitty. Learn the sound and the animal as a pair, because what does a dog say in your language is a favourite icebreaker, and answering with the Japanese sound as well keeps the exchange going.

A few more that come up: カラス karasu crows go kākā, ネズミ nezumi go chūchū, スズメ suzume sparrows go chunchun, and 馬 uma horses go hihīn. The onomatopoeia guide on this blog covers how sound words work in general; here the point is that each animal's sound is fixed, so a cat that goes mew in English says nyā in Japanese and nothing else.

Kanji or katakana on signs and menus

Animal names have a written double life. In everyday writing the common animals use kanji: 犬, 猫, 馬, 牛, 鳥, 魚. In biology, on zoo and aquarium signs, and in field guides, the species name is written in katakana regardless of origin, so the same dog is イヌ and the Japanese macaque is ニホンザル. Katakana is also the default for animals whose kanji is rare or hard, which is why ゴキブリ, キリン and イノシシ are almost always in katakana and why 蝶 chō, butterfly, is usually written チョウ or チョウチョ.

Menus go the other way. A sushi shop may write fish names in single kanji that even Japanese diners struggle with: 鮪 maguro, 鮭 sake, 鰻 unagi, 海老 ebi, 蟹 kani. Ordinary menus and supermarket labels use katakana or hiragana for the same fish. Expect katakana at the zoo and on a chain restaurant menu, kanji on a sushi counter's wooden tags, and when you cannot read one, ask.

Asking about pets in small talk

Pets are safe small talk in Japan, and the script is short. Petto o katte imasu ka opens it; the reply names the animal with a counter, and the follow-ups are the name, the age, and the breed or kind, 種類 shurui. The inu-ha or neko-ha question, dog person or cat person, works with anyone. If you want to touch someone's dog, sawatte mo ii desu ka is the polite ask, and the owner will either say dōzo or warn you off. When you cannot keep a pet, the reason is usually the building, and petto fuka, no pets allowed, is the phrase from the rental listing.

The twelve zodiac animals

The zodiac, 干支 eto or 十二支 jūnishi, gives each year an animal and appears on New Year cards, calendars and shrine decorations. The order is 子 ne rat, 丑 ushi ox, 寅 tora tiger, 卯 u rabbit, 辰 tatsu dragon, 巳 mi snake, 午 uma horse, 未 hitsuji sheep, 申 saru monkey, 酉 tori rooster, 戌 inu dog and 亥 i boar. Several zodiac readings differ from the everyday animal words, and the twelfth animal in Japan is the wild boar rather than the pig.

You give your year with the animal plus 年 doshi: tora-doshi, born in a tiger year. Asking someone's eto is a gentle way of asking their age, since the answer narrows it to a twelve-year cycle. This year, 2026, is a horse year, uma-doshi.

• Count one animal from ippiki to juppiki aloud every day for a week, then switch to tō and wa.
• Say the sound for each animal in the sound section without looking, then add its counter.
• Describe your pet, or a pet you once had, in four sentences: what it is, how many, its name, and one thing you do for it.
• Order two sea creatures aloud using the katakana names, then ask whether they are raw.
• Practise the three verbs of harm, sasu, kamu and deru, each with the animal that goes with it.