What sounds do animals make in Spanish?
At first glance, it may seem ridiculous that Spanish animal sounds are any different than English animal sounds. After all, doesn’t a dog bark no matter where in the world it is?
The more you think about it though, it makes sense that different cultures would have different onomatopoeia for their animal sounds. Some animal sounds are really hard to mimic with sounds that the human mouth can say. That’s why we just approximate them the best that we can with the letters that are available to us. That’s why it stands to reason that Spanish, which has some very different sounds for letters in the alphabet, might have come up with different ways to describe animal sounds. These sounds might be drastically different than an English speaker could come up with using the English alphabet.
Spanish animal sounds
Take a look at the cat’s “meow”, for example. Of course, a cat does not really say “meow”. This is just a combination of sounds that a human English speaker might say that sort of sounds a little like the mewing sound of a housecat. But if a Spanish speaker said “meow” using the correct letter sounds from the Spanish alphabet, it may not really end up sounding like a cat at all. This is doubly true for “purr”, which would end up using the [Spanish double rr] trill sound. That would be a pretty ridiculous sounding cat.
The most poignant example is what the Spanish rooster says, “quiquiriquí” – or the equivalent of “cock-a-doodle-doo” in Spanish
That’s right – as strange as it may seem, animal sounds may be said and written differently in Spanish than they are in English!
So, there are separate Spanish animal sounds than we might be used to. If you expect to talk about animals in Spanish (such as if you’re traveling abroad with pets or to work as a veterinarian or on the farm – or just generally want to learn how to fit in better in a Spanish-speaking country), you’ll want to give this a read. Here is a list of common animal sounds as they would be said or written in Spanish.
Spanish Animal Sounds
| Animal (English) | Animal (Spanish) | Animal Sound (English) | Animal Sound (Spanish) |
|---|---|---|---|
| bee | abeja | buzz | bzzz |
| bird | pájaro | tweet | pío |
| cat | gato | meow | miau |
| chick | pollito | chirp | pío pío |
| cow | vaca | moo | mu |
| crow | cuervo | caw | cruaac |
| cuckoo | cuco | cuckoo | cúcu-cúcu |
| dog | perro | bark | guau guau |
| donkey | burro | heehaw | iii-aah |
| dove | paloma | coo | cucurrucucú |
| duck | pato | quack | cuac cuac |
| frog | rana | ribbit, croak | cruá cruá |
| goat | cabra | baah | bee bee |
| hen | gallina | cluck | coc co |
| horse | caballo | neigh | jiiiii |
| lion | león | growl | grrrr, grgrgr |
| monkey | mono | ooh ooh | i-i-i |
| owl | búho | who | uu uu |
| pig | cerdo | oink | oinc-oinc |
| rooster | gallo | cock-a-doodle-doo | quiquiriquí |
| sheep | oveja | baah | bee, mee |
| tiger | tigre | roar, growl | grgrgr |
| turkey | pavo | gobble | gluglú |
| wolf | lobo | awooo | aúúú |
List of sounds made by various “Spanish-speaking” animals. You will notice that some are reminiscent of the sound used in English, while others are drastically different.
Spanish animal onomatopoeias
Onomatopoeias are intended to imitate sounds, but they are only ever an approximation – hence the cultural variance. The onomatopoeias that we use to describe animal sounds aren’t the same in all languages or all cultures. The common sounds native to that language, the way words and syllables are emphasized, the accents of the speakers, and even the folklore of that culture can have an impact on how the animal sound may be written or verbalized. On the flip side of this, think about how an “English-speaking” dog can say “bark,” “bow-wow,” “ruff,” or “arf”. Different regions and dialects may have multiple variations on the same Spanish animal sounds.
Think about this the next time you hear a cow moo (or “mu”!) By the way, in Spanish, animals don’t “say” a sound, they “make” a sound. Doesn’t this seem logical anyways? So in the example of a frog, using the conjugated verb “hacer”: “La rana hace croac.”
Did you enjoy learning about these Spanish animal sounds? You may also be interested in this list of animals in Spanish. If you want to work on your pronunciation, here is a list of Spanish tongue twisters to practice. If you’re going to be traveling abroad, check out our study abroad packing list.
