Hurrah! The first content post on Nihongo Manabu! Today I’d like to talk about… animals!

Here’s a list of 10 commonly heard animals in Japanese.

猫 (ねこ, neko) – cat

犬 (いぬ, inu) – dog

豚 (ぶた, buta) – pig

牛 (うし, ushi) – cow

熊 (くま, kuma) – bear

鳥 (とり , tori) – bird

兎 (うさぎ, usagi) – rabbit

鶏 (にわとり, niwatori) – chicken

狐 (きつね, kitsune) – fox

馬 (うま, uma) – horse

And one last word…

動物 (どうぶつ, doubutsu) – animal

How can we learn about names of animals without learning what ‘animal’ is in Japanese, right? Breaking up the phrase, 動 means motion and movement, while 物 means thing or object. So putting it together, you have moving things! Animals are moving things… when you consider natural things (keeping in mind that language came about a long time ago), that sounds just about right. 🙂

Want to learn more animals? There’s Part 2 and Part 3!