Deutsch · A1 · vocabulary · 4 minutes
Common animals
Describe pets and farm or wild animals with clear noun genders and plurals.
Understand the choice
Animal words provide memorable vowel-changing plurals and verb forms. Contrast der Hund/die Hunde, die Maus/die Mäuse, and das Pferd/die Pferde while describing what each animal does.
Core rule: Every animal noun should be learned with its nominative article and plural.
Notice it in context
Der Hund spielt, während die Katze auf dem Sofa schläft.
The dog plays while the cat sleeps on the sofa.
Hund and Katze are subjects with der/die; schläft has the strong-verb vowel change.
Das Pferd und die Kuh stehen auf der Wiese.
The horse and the cow are standing in the meadow.
Pferd and Kuh form a plural subject; auf der Wiese is location.
Ein Vogel sieht eine Maus neben dem Kaninchen.
A bird sees a mouse beside the rabbit.
Vogel is subject; Maus is accusative object; Kaninchen is dative after neben.
What to remember
- The plural of Maus is Mäuse; the plural of Vogel is Vögel.
- Kaninchen is neuter and unchanged in the plural.
Common trap: Do not infer biological sex from noun gender: die Katze can be a cat generally.