Animals in Arabic

About this Arabic animals activity

This activity teaches Arabic names for 98 animals in three modes. Learn shows every animal as a card with its Arabic spelling, an English-letter pronunciation guide and a button to hear the word. Flashcards shows the animal first, so a child tries to recall the Arabic name before flipping the card. Quiz shows an animal and asks the child to pick its Arabic name from four options. Each animal has a unique emoji so the picture points to only one possible answer. The audio uses your device's Arabic voice, and how natural it sounds varies by phone, tablet and browser. The pronunciation guides are simplified, and dialects differ.

Where to start, by age

• Ages 4–5: pick five animals the child already loves. Use Learn, press “Hear”, and repeat each word together.
• Ages 6–8: use Flashcards for a set of ten, then try the Quiz.
• Ages 9–12: add the sentence patterns below, and have them write the Arabic names by hand.

Starter sets of animal words

In order: cat, dog, rabbit, fish, bird. Cow, sheep, goat, horse, donkey, chicken. Lion, elephant, giraffe, monkey, bear, fox, wolf. Whale, dolphin, shark, octopus, turtle. Butterfly, bee, ant, spider.

Three grammar ideas that help

• Masculine and feminine. Arabic nouns have gender, and a final ة usually marks the feminine. Many animals have both forms: قط is a male cat and قطة a female cat. For others, such as بقرة (cow), the ة is simply part of the word.
• “The”. Adding ال to the front gives “the”: الأسد (the lion).
• Collective words. سمك means fish as a group, and سمكة means one fish.

Two sentence patterns to practise: هذا أسد (“this is a lion”, for masculine words) and هذه قطة (“this is a cat”, for feminine words).

Words differ between regions

Standard Arabic gives one reliable word for most animals, but everyday speech varies. For example, some Gulf dialects say بسة (bissa) for a cat. Your child may hear a different word at home or from relatives. That is not a mistake, so treat it as a chance to compare words.

Practice away from the screen

• Sort toy animals into farm and wild trays and name each in Arabic.
• Play “guess the animal”: one person acts or describes it, the other answers in Arabic.
• Draw an animal and label it with its Arabic name, then add the matching letter from the Letters activity.
• Read an animal picture book and point out the animals you know in Arabic.

Related

Frequently asked questions

How do you say animal names in Arabic?

Examples: أسد (asad) lion, قطة (qitta) cat, كلب (kalb) dog, فيل (feel) elephant, جمل (jamal) camel, سمكة (samaka) fish. Use Learn mode to hear each one.

What is “lion” in Arabic?

It is أسد (asad). It is one of the first animal words many learners meet, and it is understood across Arabic dialects.

What are “cat” and “dog” in Arabic?

A cat is قطة (qitta), or قط (qitt) for a male cat. A dog is كلب (kalb).

What is “camel” in Arabic?

It is جمل (jamal). Arabic has many words for camels of different ages and types, which reflects their importance in Arab culture. The two-humped camel is called جمل بسنامين in this activity.

How many animal words should children learn first?

Start with ten familiar animals, such as lion, cat, dog, elephant, fish, bird, horse, cow, sheep and monkey. When those come easily, add a new set from the table above.

What is the best way to teach animal names to kids?

Pair the picture with the sound, ask the child to recall the word before you reveal it, then use the quiz to check. Short daily sessions of 10–15 minutes work better than a long weekly one.

Why does the activity sometimes use two words for similar animals?

Arabic often has separate words for male and female animals or for related species, and not every English animal maps neatly to one Arabic word.

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