English for FunAnimal names in English for kids
Tap an animal to hear its English name. Farm animals, wild animals, sea animals and bugs: 30 words in all.
Tap to hear
Good to know
- Use "an" before a vowel sound: an elephant, an octopus, an ant. Everything else takes "a": a cat, a lion.
- Some animals do not add -s for more than one: one sheep, two sheep; one fish, three fish.
- Say the end sound: duck ends in /k/, frog in /g/, fox in /ks/. Children who speak Vietnamese at home often drop it.
- Group the words: farm (cow, pig, sheep), wild (lion, tiger, zebra), sea (dolphin, octopus, whale).
Play at home
- Make the animal sound and let your child say the English name, then swap.
- Look through a picture book and point: "Where is the giraffe?"
- Play "farm or zoo?" with toy animals and sort them into two boxes.
Practise with Word Island
Word Island practises all 30 animals on Animal Zoo, which is free to play. Each pack is a set of short games where the child hears, picks and builds the word, says it out loud, and then meets all the pictures again.
Free printable
A one-page A4 chart for "Animal names in English for kids". Print it for the fridge, the classroom wall or pointing practice. Free to share.
Questions
Which animal words should my child learn first?
Start with pets and farm animals they can see (cat, dog, duck, chicken), then wild and sea animals.
Is "fishes" wrong?
For young learners, use "fish" for one or many: "three fish". "Fishes" exists but is used for different kinds of fish.
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The English alphabet: letter names A to Z
Hear the name of every letter from A to Z, with a picture word for each.