Animals in Chinese

Common animals in Chinese with characters, pinyin and audio: pets, farm and wild animals, the panda, and the twelve zodiac animals.

The twelve zodiac animals

The Chinese zodiac runs on a twelve-year cycle, one animal per year: rat 鼠, ox 牛, tiger 虎, rabbit 兔, dragon 龙, snake 蛇, horse 马, goat 羊, monkey 猴, rooster 鸡, dog 狗, pig 猪. Asking someone 你属什么？ (what do you belong to?) is a normal way to ask their age without asking it — the animal narrows a birth year to one in twelve.

Why the panda is 熊猫

熊猫 is literally bear-cat, and the order is worth a second look: the head noun is 猫 (cat), so the compound reads as a cat-like bear rather than a bear-like cat. It is one of the clearest examples of how Chinese compounds put the category last — 熊猫 is a 猫 that is 熊-ish, the same way 鸭子 is a duck and 兔子 is a rabbit, both with the neutral 子 suffix that marks many animal names.

龙 is not a Western dragon

龙 is translated dragon, and the translation misleads. The Chinese 龙 is a benevolent water-and-rain creature associated with emperors, luck and strength — not a hoard-guarding monster to be slain. Being born in a dragon year is considered the best of the twelve, and birth rates measurably rise in dragon years.