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Some animals are very important within Chinese culture.

You can learn a bit about this in the story of the zodiac animals.

To tell someone what pet you have in Mandarin, you can use ÎÒÓÐ W¨¯ y¨¯u (I have).

Did you know?

To say ¡®I have a cat¡¯ in Mandarin you would not simply say ¡®ÎÒÓÐè W¨¯ y¨¯u ³¾¨¡´Ç¡¯ - this misses out the ¡®a¡¯.

In Mandarin, measure words (often called ¡®classifiers¡¯) are used to classify the type of object being discussed.

For animals, these are:

So, to say ¡®I have a cat¡¯ in Mandarin you would say:

ÎÒÓÐһֻè W¨¯ y¨¯u y¨© zh¨© ³¾¨¡´Ç - I have a cat

Did you know?

When you want to say you have two of something in Mandarin, you don¡¯t use ¶þ ¨¨°ù (two).

Instead, you use the Mandarin word Á½ ±ô¾±¨£²Ô²µ, for example:

ÎÒÓÐÁ½Ö»¹· W¨¯ y¨¯u ±ô¾±¨£²Ô²µ zh¨© ²µ¨¯³Ü - I have two dogs

This only applies to the number ¡®two¡¯ - all other numbers stay the same.

As well as pets, here are some other animals you may want to talk about in Mandarin:

Did you know?

Some animals names translate very literally from Mandarin into English, for example:

• giraffe (³¤¾±Â¹ ³¦³ó¨¢²Ô²µ Âᨫ²Ô²µ ±ô¨´) - long ( ³¤ ³¦³ó¨¢²Ô²µ) neck ( ¾± Âᨫ²Ô²µ) deer ( ¹ ±ô¨´)

• kangaroo (´üÊó »å¨¤¾± ²õ³ó¨³) - pocket ( ´ü »å¨¤¾±) rat ( Êó ²õ³ó¨³)

• walrus (º£Ïó ³ó¨£¾± ³æ¾±¨¤²Ô²µ) - sea ( º£ ³ó¨£¾±) elephant ( Ïó ³æ¾±¨¤²Ô²µ)

Why not practise what you've learnt by reading The zodiac animals in Mandarin.