Animals vocabulary Animais
21 Portuguese words on the topic of animals — with pictures, audio recordings and example sentences. From the farm to the jungle.
| Picture | English | Portuguese · Português | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 | dog | o cachorro | Brazil: cachorro. 🇵🇹 PortugalPortugal: cão. |
 | cat | o gato | In Brazilian slang gato/gata also means a good-looking person. |
 | bird | o pássaro | Usually a small bird — the general term is a ave; stress the first syllable: PAS-sa-ro. |
 | fish | o peixe | One word for both the animal and the food; x = sh: PAY-shee. |
 | horse | o cavalo | The mare is a égua; cf. cavalry, cavalier. |
 | cow | a vaca | Beef in Brazil is carne de boi (boi = ox, steer). |
 | bull | o touro | The zodiac sign Taurus is Touro; ou sounds like a closed o. |
 | pig | o porco | Also an adjective, 'filthy'; porca is the sow — and a hardware nut. |
 | sheep | a ovelha | lh sounds like 'lli' in million; the ram is o carneiro. |
 | goat | a cabra | The billy goat is o bode; a kid is cabrito. |
 | hen | a galinha | nh = Spanish ñ / 'ny': ga-LEE-nya; the rooster is o galo. |
 | rabbit | o coelho | lh = 'lli': co-EL-yoo; the Easter bunny is o coelhinho. |
 | mouse | o rato | For the computer device Brazilians say mouse. 🇵🇹 PortugalIn Portugal also the computer mouse. |
 | lion | o leão | Nasal -ão; plural leões, lioness a leoa. |
 | tiger | o tigre | In Brazil ti sounds like 'chee': CHEE-gree. |
 | elephant | o elefante | memória de elefante = an excellent memory. |
 | monkey | o macaco | Cf. macaque; o macaco is also a car jack. |
 | bear | o urso | A teddy bear is urso de pelúcia. 🔗 RootFrom Latin ursus (cf. Ursa Major). |
 | turtle | a tartaruga | Covers both turtle and tortoise; stress: tar-ta-RU-ga. |
 | snake | a serpente | Rather formal; the everyday word is a cobra — in Portuguese any snake, not just cobras. |
 | butterfly | a borboleta | Stress the third syllable: bor-bo-LE-ta. |