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Learn how to talk about animals and pets in Spanish with these useful words and phrases.

Join Scottish pupils as they give Spanish a go!

Listen and guess what they are saying before trying yourself.

Tip: This video can be used as an interactive introduction to this topic or as a recap on key vocabulary and phrases already learnt.

Remember!

It doesn't matter if your pronunciation isn't perfect. Try your best and have fun!

To ask someone if they have a pet, you can use the question:

¿Tienes un animal en casa? - Do you have a pet?

( It literally means: 'Do you have an animal in the house?' )

If you want to describe what pets you have, you can use the verb tener (to have).

If you want to say 'I have', you say tengo, for example:

Tengo un perro - I have a dog

Try using tengo to create a sentence with the animals below:

You can also use colours to describe your pets, for example:

• Tengo un perro negro - I have a black dog

• Tengo un gato naranja - I have an orange cat

• Tengo un ratón blanco - I have a white mouse

( To learn or remind yourself of colours in Spanish, check out our colours guide )

To add your pet’s name, you can use se llama (it is called) or se llaman (they are called).

• Tengo un pez naranja. Se llama Rocky - I have an orange fish. It is called Rocky.

• Tengo dos perros. Se llaman Rollo y Sam - I have two dogs. They are called Rollo and Sam.

As well as your pets at home, you can also try describing your favourite animal in Spanish.

To ask somebody about their favourite animal in Spanish, you can say:

¿Cuál es tu animal favorito? - What is your favourite animal?

You can start your answer with:

Mi animal favorito es… - My favourite animal is…

Try adding some of these animals to the sentence:

You can add more detail to your sentence to say why the animal is your favourite.

To give a reason and to say 'because' you can add the conjunction porque (because), for example:

Mi animal favorito es un león porque es feroz - My favourite animal is a lion because it's fierce

Take a look at the adjectives below and try to extend your sentence:

The word 'remember' in English has three different ‘e’ sounds - ‘ee’, ‘eh’ and ‘er’.

Unlike English, it is important to know that the ‘e’ sound is always pronounced the same way in Spanish.

For example, un elefante (an elephant) has three e’s that all sound the same.

Here are some more examples of the 'e' sound in Spanish: