Are you an animal lover who is studying English? You’ll love todays blog post which is packed with useful vocabulary related to animals.
Tomorrow, 4th October, is World Animal Day, an important day focused on raising awareness of animal welfare standards throughout the world. In today’s blog post, we’ll take a look at some useful nouns and verbs that you can use to expand your vocabulary when talking about animals. Don’t forget to download your free worksheet at the bottom of the blog and complete the practice activities.
Collective nouns for animals
Did you know that a group of lions is called a pride? Or that a group of wolves is called a pack? These words are what we refer to grammatically as ‘collective nouns’. What are collective nouns? A noun is a person, animal or thing. Collective nouns are words that we use to describe a group of people, animals or things, when referring to them as one singular thing. For example, a football team is made up of many players, but we would say that the team ‘is moving up in the league’ (referring to the team as third person singular, ‘it’, rather than plural ‘they are…’.)
Below is a list of some common, (and some not so common) collective nouns to talk about animals.
| Collective noun | Animal |
| A pack of… | wolves, dogs |
| A herd of… | cows, bison, goats, elephants |
| A flock of… | sheep, birds, geese (flying) |
| A swarm of… | bees, flying insects |
| A pride of… | lions |
| A gaggle of… | geese (walking) |
| A school of… | fish |
| A murder of… | crows |
| A pod of… | dolphins, whales |
| A colony/An army of… | frogs, ants |
| A streak of… | tigers |
| A parliament of… | owls |
Verbs to describe animal noises
Some of the first verbs we learn to talk about animal noises are ‘meow’ for cats, or ‘bark’ for dog. Read the following paragraph and note all of the verbs describing animal noises.
When a cat is very happy, they may purr. However, if they feel threatened or angry, for example when protecting their territory, they may show their teeth and hiss. Dogs often bark, or ‘woof‘ when someone rings the doorbell in your house. If a dog is being aggressive they may growl, snarl or even snap. When an animal is in pain, they may let out a soft cry known as a whimper. In gothic or horror stories, wolves or werewolves famously howl at the moon. In the countryside, you can hear cows mooing, horses neighing, or perhaps whinnying if they feel happy. The sheep baa or bleat, and the pigs oink or grunt. Chickens cluck and ducks quack. At night, you may hear a barn owl cooing or hooting. In the jungle, lions and tigers roar, parrots and other birds squawk, and frogs croak or ribbit. Trumpeting is the verb for the sound elephants make, and bees, flies and other flying insects make a buzzing sound.
Phew! That’s a lot of noise, and a lot of verbs to learn! Is there an animal noise that we missed that you would like to know? Let us know by leaving a comment below!
Top Tip: We recommend noting down these verbs and their animals on flashcards and reviewing them regularly. You can also add pictures of the animals.
Baby animals
You may know the names for lots of animals in English, but did you know that baby animals have different names? Perhaps you have heard that a baby dog is called a puppy, and a baby cat is a kitten. Below, we’ll look at some other baby animal names.
Fun fact: A common English idiom ‘puppy love’ in English is used to describe romantic feelings of infatuation, normally in adolescence.
Below are some other useful animal baby names.
| Animal | Baby |
| Dog | Puppy |
| Cat | Kitten |
| Horse, Zebra | Foal |
| Cow, Elephant, Dolphin | Calf |
| Pig | Piglet |
| Chicken | Chick |
| Goat | Kid |
| Duck | Duckling |
| Sheep | Lamb |
| Goose | Gosling |
| Tiger, Lion, Bear | Cub |
| Owl | Owlet |
| Swan | Cygnet |
| Eagle | Eaglet |
| Kangaroo | Joey |
| Shark, Seal | Pup |
| Deer | Fawn |
Well, I hope you enjoyed this fun blog post packed full of animal-related vocabulary! Don’t forget to download your free worksheet on animal vocabulary to complete the practice activities.
Are you doing anything special this World Animal Day? What is your favourite animal and why? Let us know in the comments!
Looking for something a little more advanced? You’ll love to learn these top 25 animal idioms with Kate R’s video lesson! Or check out some of our blog posts on dog idioms, cat idioms, and more!