Spanish Animals Vocabulary Exercise 1

Common animal nouns with gender — el gato / la gata (cat), el perro / la perra (dog), el mono (monkey), el cerdo (pig), el tigre (tiger — same for m/f), la jirafa (giraffe — always feminine), la vaca (cow), el pájaro (bird), el león (lion), la ardilla (squirrel).

Animal gender patterns — Many animals have separate male/female forms (el gato/la gata). Others are grammatically fixed to one gender regardless of the actual animal's sex: la jirafa (always feminine), el tiburón (always masculine). For those, add macho or hembra if you need to specify: una jirafa macho.

Talking about animals — ¿Tienes mascotas? (Do you have pets?). El perro ladra mucho (The dog barks a lot). El mono es muy inteligente (Monkeys are very intelligent). Me da miedo el tigre (Tigers scare me). La ardilla trepó al árbol (The squirrel climbed up the tree). Animals are great for practising gender rules.