Korean animal names plus the playful onomatopoeia Koreans use for animal sounds, from 멍멍 to 야옹, with a full vocabulary table and example sentences.
Animal vocabulary is some of the first vocabulary Korean children learn — and it is just as fun and useful for adult learners. Beyond the names themselves, Korean has a rich set of onomatopoeia for animal sounds that differ delightfully from English.
| Korean | Romanization | English |
|---|---|---|
| 개 | gae | dog |
| 고양이 | goyangi | cat |
| 새 | sae | bird |
| 물고기 | mulgogi | fish |
| 토끼 | tokki | rabbit |
| 곰 | gom | bear |
| 호랑이 | horangi | tiger |
| 사자 | saja | lion |
| 코끼리 | kokkiri | elephant |
| 원숭이 | wonsungi | monkey |
| 여우 | yeou | fox |
| 늑대 | neukdae | wolf |
| 말 | mal | horse |
| 소 | so | cow |
| 돼지 | dwaeji | pig |
| Animal | Korean sound | English equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Dog | 멍멍 (meong-meong) | woof woof |
| Cat | 야옹 (yaong) | meow |
| Cow | 음매 (eum-mae) | moo |
| Rooster | 꼬끼오 (kkokkio) | cock-a-doodle-doo |
| Duck | 꽥꽥 (kkwaek-kkwaek) | quack quack |
| Pig | 꿀꿀 (kkul-kkul) | oink oink |
| Frog | 개굴개굴 (gaegul-gaegul) | ribbit ribbit |
Notice how differently Korean hears the same sounds — a rooster says 꼬끼오, not "cock-a-doodle-doo," because languages encode sound differently, not because animals sound different around the world.
Animals appear constantly in Korean expressions — 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어진다 (even a monkey falls from a tree, meaning even experts make mistakes), and 소 잃고 외양간 고친다 (fixing the barn after losing the cow, meaning closing the barn door after the horse has bolted). Learning animal vocabulary early pays off when you encounter these idioms later.
Why do animal sounds differ between languages? Each language's sound system shapes how speakers perceive and represent noises — it's not that animals sound different, but that ears and alphabets interpret sound differently.
Are animal sounds tested on TOPIK? Rarely directly, but they appear in children's stories and listening passages used for lower-level TOPIK I content.
Ready to build vocabulary that actually sticks? Klovers' interactive lessons and flashcard games make memorizing Korean words like these fast, fun, and easy to retain.