Updated on October 7, 2024
10 animal sounds in different languages
What sound does a dog make?
If you said “woof,” you’re right—and also wrong. Sure, that’s the sound a dog makes in an English-speaking country, but what about a French or German animal?
It’s tempting to assume that animal noises in different languages are all the same, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Every language has its own words created to imitate sounds, known as onomatopoeias, for animals.
While some animal sounds around the world are remarkably similar, many are wildly different. Below, we explore ten animals’ sounds in different languages. These onomatopoeias are sure to surprise you!
Starting off our list are cats. As you’ll see below, although the spelling differs, the sounds they make in most languages are surprisingly similar. In fact, the only language below that has a completely different cat sound is Korean.
Here’s yet another animal with a sound distinct enough that many languages use the same—or very similar—sounds. A common theme here is the use of either “m” or “b” followed by an “oo” sound.
Unlike cats, dogs around the world make very different sounds. Maybe it depends on the breeds or sizes of the dogs that are most common in each country. A tiny lap dog would make a different sound than a herding dog, for example.
A study even found that around the world, there are at least 40 interpretations of a dog’s bark!
While some of the duck sounds below are different, you’ll notice some similarities too: Just look at German and Italian, for instance. Even the Spanish cua-cua sounds pretty close to quack-quack.
There are a few similar features in some of the frog sounds below, such as “c,” “k” and “r” sounds. However, for the most part, it appears as though frogs croak quite differently from country to country!
We can probably all agree that most horses make pretty much the same sound despite their breed. However, there seems to be a lot of disagreement about what that sound is. Just look at all the interpretations below!
You can see that all of the mouse sounds below convey that teeny-tiny sound the little rodents make, yet they’re all quite different.
Judging from the list below, it looks like pigs would have to overcome major language barriers if they visited different countries—none of these sounds have much in common!
Apparently, roosters have a pretty unmistakable sound; it’s very similar in a lot of languages. Sometimes spelled with a “c,” sometimes with a “k” and even with an occasional “q,” all the sounds below are multisyllabic and have a distinct rooster feel.
There are some differences between each of the sheep sounds we’ve listed, but they have a common thread: They all start with either an “m” or a “b,” and contain “a” or “e” vowel sounds. Our favorite is the Japanese sheep—it sounds so unimpressed!
Though it may seem silly, our list of animal sounds in different languages reveals something quite interesting: Despite their many differences, it’s not unusual to find common features in various languages; even those across the globe from one another. Do some research on your own to discover more!
