En resumen (the short version)
- Most pet words change their ending to show male or female (perro, perra). For words that don't, add macho or hembra.
- Spanish treats pets a bit like people: you sacas al perro, with the little a you use for people.
- Describe your pet with es (what it's like), tiene (what it has) and está (how it is today).
¡Hola aventurero!
Your first Spanish class taught you el perro and el gato. Then someone tells you their dog es un poco cabezota and only eats one brand of pienso… and you're lost 😅
Pets come up in conversation all the time. So here's the pet vocabulary in Spanish you'll actually use: the animals, the verbs, the things you buy, and how to describe them.
The animals, and why perro has a perra
Let's start with the animals themselves. Most of these work like amigo and amiga: change the ending and you've changed male to female.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| la mascota | the pet |
| el perro / la perra | the dog |
| el gato / la gata | the cat |
| el conejo / la coneja | the rabbit |
| el hámster | the hamster |
| el pez | the fish |
| el loro | the parrot |
| la tortuga | the tortoise / the turtle |
Teacher bit 🤓 Some animal words only have one form. La tortuga is always la, even if he's a boy, and el loro is always el. To say which it is, add macho (male) or hembra (female) after the word: una tortuga macho, un loro hembra.
Pez is a fish that's alive and swimming. Pescado is fish on your plate. So it's Tengo un pez, never Tengo un pescado, unless you're telling people what's for dinner 🐟
Things you do with your pet
Now the verbs people use when they talk about their day with an animal.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| sacar al perro | to walk the dog (literally "take the dog out") |
| dar de comer al gato | to feed the cat |
| cepillar | to brush |
| bañar | to bath / to give a bath |
| llevar al veterinario | to take to the vet |
| jugar con | to play with |
| cuidar | to look after |
See the al in sacar al perro? That's the personal a. Spanish puts a little a before a person who receives the action: Veo a María. Pets get it too, because to their owners they're family 💛
So you say Saco a Coco dos veces al día (I walk Coco twice a day) and Baño a la gata los domingos. With an animal you don't know, the a usually disappears: Hay un perro en la puerta.
The things you buy for them
These are the words you'll need in a pet shop, la tienda de animales:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| la correa | the lead |
| el collar | the collar |
| el pienso | dry pet food |
| la comida húmeda | wet food |
| el comedero | the food bowl |
| el bebedero | the water bowl |
| el arenero | the litter tray |
| el rascador | the scratching post |
Pienso is the word you'll see on bags of dry food in any Spanish supermarket. And careful with collar: it also means necklace. Un collar de perlas is not for your dog 😄
Comedero and bebedero follow a handy pattern, by the way. Take the verb, comer or beber, add -dero, and you get the place where it happens.
Describing your pet: es, tiene and está
To describe a pet, you need three verbs. Each one does a different job:
| Use | Example | In English |
|---|---|---|
| Es + adjective: what it's like | Es pequeña y muy cariñosa. | She's small and really affectionate. |
| Tiene + noun: what it has | Tiene el pelo largo y los ojos verdes. | She's got long fur and green eyes. |
| Tiene + años: age | Tiene seis años. | She's six. |
| Está + adjective: how it is right now | Hoy está un poco triste. | She's a bit sad today. |
It's the same es and está split you use for people. More on that in my visual guide to ser and estar.
And here are some words for your pet's personality:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| cariñoso / cariñosa | affectionate |
| juguetón / juguetona | playful |
| tranquilo / tranquila | calm |
| cabezota | stubborn (same for boys and girls) |
| listo / lista | clever |
| celoso / celosa | jealous |
| sociable | friendly with everyone |
¡Ojo con listo! Es listo means he's clever. Está listo means he's ready. Most of these work for people too, and there are lots more in personality adjectives in Spanish.
You'll hear people call their pets gatito, perrito or bonito. The -ito ending in Spanish shows affection, not only size, so a 40-kilo dog can still be mi perrito. In some parts of Spain, like Murcia or Aragón, you'll hear -ico instead: perrico.
A chat about pets
Here's how it can sound. Two colleagues on a coffee break, one with a new kitten:
¡Qué cosa más bonita! is a lovely one to steal. It uses the qué + noun + más + adjective pattern from small talk in Spain, and people say it about babies, puppies and pretty much anything small and cute.
Animal expressions you'll hear in Spain
These animal expressions come up suuuper often in Spain, pets or no pets:
| Spanish | Literally | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Había cuatro gatos. | There were four cats. | There was hardly anyone there. |
| Llevarse como el perro y el gato | To get on like the dog and the cat | To argue all the time |
| Tener memoria de pez | To have a fish's memory | To forget everything |
| Estar como una cabra | To be like a goat | To be a bit crazy |
| Buscarle tres pies al gato | To look for three feet on the cat | To make something more complicated than it is |
If you only learn one, make it cuatro gatos. Use it for an empty bar, a quiet class or a party nobody came to: En el concierto había cuatro gatos. No cats involved 😄
Your pet words this week
Describe your pet in three sentences
Write one sentence with es, one with tiene and one with está, then say them out loud: Coco es muy juguetón. Tiene tres años. Hoy está cansadísimo. No pet? Describe a friend's, or the one you'd like to have.
Talk to your pet in Spanish
These are the tú commands you'd use with a friend. Siéntate has te on the end because the verb is sentarse. If you haven't got a pet, try them on a friend's dog.
Things to say to your pet in Spanish Spanish English ¡Ven aquí! Come here! ¡Siéntate! Sit! ¡Quieto! / ¡Quieta! Stay! ¡Suelta! Drop it! ¡Muy bien! Good boy! / Good girl! ¿Vamos a la calle? Shall we go out? Ask someone about their pet
Next time you chat in Spanish, ask ¿Tienes mascota? and then ¿Cómo es? (What's it like?). Have your own answer ready too.
Recap ✨
- Most pet words change their ending for male and female (perro, perra). For words like tortuga, add macho or hembra.
- Pets get the personal a: Saco al perro, Baño a la gata.
- Learn the words for the things you buy, like la correa, el pienso and el arenero.
- Describe your pet with es (what it's like), tiene (what it has and its age) and está (how it is today).
- Animal expressions like había cuatro gatos are everywhere in Spain, even with no animals around.
Pets are just one everyday topic. If you'd like the others in order, with games, speaking prompts and cheat sheets for each one, that's what my Roadmaps are for 🗺️
Now I want to meet your pet 👀 What's it called, and which word from the personality table fits it best? Cuéntame in the comments, in Spanish if you can!
Lucía ✨
Lucía · Linguist, translator, Spanish teacher and author of the Visual Spanish Grammar Book.
Come and learn Spanish with me and other aventureros like yourself at skool.com/learnspanish 🎉