Animals in Polish

The most common animal words in Polish are pies (dog), kot (cat), koń (horse), krowa (cow) and ptak (bird). The word for animal is zwierzę, plural zwierzęta. A Polish dog says hau hau, a cat says miau and a rooster says kukuryku.

Pets in Polish

The word for animal is zwierzę (ZVYEH-zheh), and its plural is irregular: zwierzęta. A pet is zwierzę domowe (literally "home animal"), and children often say zwierzątko, the small, cute form.

Many animal words have separate male and female forms. Pies is a dog in general or a male dog, and suka is a female dog. Be careful with suka: like the English word, it is also a strong insult, so most owners just say sunia or ona about their female dog. A female cat is kotka.

When you say you have a pet, masculine animal words take the ending -a after mam (I have), because animals count as "animate": Mam psa (I have a dog), Mam kota, Mam chomika. Feminine words end in -ę: Mam papugę, Mam świnkę morską.

• Masz jakieś zwierzęta?
  Do you have any pets?
• Mam psa i dwa koty.
  I have a dog and two cats.
• Codziennie wyprowadzam psa na spacer.
  I take the dog for a walk every day.
• Mój kot śpi cały dzień.
  My cat sleeps all day.

Farm animals

A farm is gospodarstwo or farma, and the countryside is wieś (which also means village). Note that kurczak is the word you see on menus for chicken meat, while the live bird in the yard is kura.

Wild animals, birds and insects

Wild animals

Wild animals are dzikie zwierzęta. These are the ones you can meet in Polish forests, followed by a few well-known animals from further away.

The żubr is a symbol of Poland. The largest herd in the wild lives in the Białowieża Forest in the east of the country, and you will also see the name on a well-known Polish beer.

Birds and insects

Two birds have a special place in Polish culture. The white eagle, biały orzeł, is on the national coat of arms. The bocian arrives every spring and builds huge nests on poles and chimneys in villages, and many Poles see the first stork of the year as a sign that spring has really come.

Animal sounds in Polish

Polish animals "say" slightly different things from English ones. Children learn these early, so you will hear them in songs and picture books. Each sound also has its own verb.

A few more verbs are useful without a sound word: a cat mruczy (purrs), a wolf or a dog wyje (howls), a lion ryczy (roars) and a dog warczy (growls).

• Pies sąsiadów szczeka całą noc.
  The neighbours' dog barks all night.
• Kot mruczy, kiedy go głaszczę.
  The cat purrs when I stroke it.
• Rano obudził mnie kogut.
  A rooster woke me up in the morning.

Baby animals

Many baby animal words share one pattern. They are neuter, end in -ę in the singular and -ęta in the plural, just like zwierzę and zwierzęta. In everyday speech these formal words often give way to friendlier forms, shown in the third column. The general word for an animal's young is młode.

Bear cubs and fox cubs use the small ending -ek instead: niedźwiadek (bear cub), lisek (fox cub, or just a cute fox).

Irregular plurals and counting animals

Most animal words form their plural in a regular way: kot gives koty, krowa gives krowy. A handful change more. Some lose a vowel (pies becomes psy, orzeł becomes orły), and some soft-ending words take -e or -i. After the numbers 5 and up, Polish uses the genitive plural, which is the form to learn for counting.

With 2, 3 and 4 you use the plural form: dwa psy, trzy krowy, cztery konie. Feminine words take dwie instead of dwa: dwie kury, dwie myszy.

Animals also turn up in many Polish sayings. Głodny jak wilk is "hungry as a wolf", uparty jak osioł is "stubborn as a mule" (literally a donkey), and zdrowy jak koń is "fit as a fiddle" (healthy as a horse). The most famous one is Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy: "not my circus, not my monkeys", meaning "not my problem".