English Vocabulary - CATS & DOGS

Hey, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking. Welcome to this lesson on animal vocabulary.

Today, we're going to focus on cats and dogs. However, some of this vocabulary, lots of

this vocabulary actually, can also be applied to other animals. I'm going to teach you some

nouns, there will be some pictures, and we're also going to look at some common verbs that

we associate with these animals. For all you pet lovers out there, you want to learn how

to talk about dogs and cats, their actions, and their features, this lesson is for you.

Those of you who don't have pets, this lesson is still useful because everybody has seen

a cat, everyone has seen a dog, I think. If you haven't, you're going to see lots of them

in this video.

First, let's look at the nouns. Here we have "tail", and we're going to focus on the pronunciation,

as well. This is "tail"; cats and dogs have tails. Basically, it's the back of the animal

that can move around, as you can see right here.

Next we have "fur". Fur is basically the hair on an animal. The hair on a dog, the hair

on a cat, or the hair on almost any animal is called fur, F-U-R, fur.

Next up, we have "paws". The pronunciation is the same like "pause" in a video game for

example. The word "paws" means the feet of a cat or a dog, so the bottoms of the feet

are the "paws" of the animal.

"Spots": we have many dogs which have "spots" on them. Think of the film "101 Dalmatians".

A Dalmatian has lots and lots of spots on them. They're little black areas on the animal.

"Whiskers" -- this is related to cats. It can also be related to tigers, for example.

Whiskers are the things that come from the cat's nose, these are "whiskers". "Whiskers"

-- I should say the hairs, strands, or something like that.

Next we have "stripes". Tigers have stripes; some cats have stripes, as well. They're lines

on the body, as you can see here.

Finally we have "claws". Claws are the nails of a cat, for example.

"Claws" -- a cat can have sharp claws. That can be a tongue-twister: "A cat can have sharp claws."

"Claws" are the nails of the cat.

Next, let's look at some verbs. These verbs are also associated with, again, cats and

dogs. We have "wag". Once more, "wag". When you think of a dog, and the dog's tail is

moving back and forth, and back and forth, because the dog is happy or the dog wants

to go for a walk, the dog's tail is wagging. You can also wag your finger at somebody,

probably not, and hopefully not the middle one. If you're a parent and you want to tell

your children not to do something, you can wag your finger.

"Beg"; this is a dog saying "Please, please, please, please, please feed me or take me

for a walk, take me outside." When the dog is "mm-mm" and jumping around and asking for

you to do something, they are begging you to do something. Or if they want food, maybe

they're just hungry.

"Fetch"; this is a very common game that most dog-owners play. My family has a dog, so sometimes,

I take my dog out for a walk and I throw a stick or I throw a ball and I say "Fetch! Fetch the ball."

"Fetch" means go get it and come back; go get it and come back. This is not only

for animals... it's not exactly super-polite, but you can say "Hey. When you're at the grocery

store, can you go fetch me a bag of milk?", for example. Not really, really common, but

you could say that.

"Roll over"; this is a command to a dog. If your dog is talented, if your dog can do tricks,

obviously they can sit, they can also "roll over" -- go from one side to another side.

It can be a command.

"Lick"; some people find it gross, but animals do lick your face, they can lick your face.

So "lick" means using your tongue to "lick" someone, there's really no other way to put it. As

you can see in this picture here, this person is really, really getting licked really badly.

"Pet"; you're thinking a dog is a "pet", a cat is a "pet". "Pet" is also a verb. If you

have a dog, if you have a cat, if you have any kind of "pet" where you can do this to

them; you can stroke their fur, you can "pet" them.

You can "pet your dog"; you can "pet your cat".

"Bark"; bark is the sound a dog makes. If your dog hears a stranger at the door and

they "rah-rah-rah-rah-rah", the dog is barking. Again, the verb is "bark".

Now let's look at some cat verbs. A cat will "purr". When you hear this word, you can automatically

imagine the word "purr", "purr"; the cat going "purrrrrrr", either because the cat is very

happy, sleepy, or tired, this is purring.

We have "meow"; obviously, you can hear the sound in your head; "Meow, meow, meow." "Meow",

you can use it as a verb. You can say, "Why is my cat meowing?" or "Why is your cat meowing?"

It would be weird for me to say "Why is my cat meowing?" "Why is your cat meowing? Is he hungry?"

"Hiss"; if your cat does not like you or does not like strangers, or your friends, or someone

that you introduce them to, or if they're scared, your cat might "hiss". If they go

"hssss", that's hissing. That probably looked very ugly, I'm sorry.

Last of all, this is something that cats do a lot. Dogs can do it too, humans do it too.

"Barf", "throw up", or "puke". This is if you eat something and it comes back out of

your mouth. Cats often cough up or barf up, "throw up" hairballs, for example, or just

a lot of really, really gross, disgusting, not-nice things. This means to... the correct

verb is regurgitate. You can look up regurgitate, but informally, we say "throw up", "puke",

or "barf". If you say "Oh no! My cat barfed on the sofa!"... not a good thing.

Okay, guys. If you want to test your understanding of all of these cat and dog nouns and verbs,

you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com . Take care, guys, and good luck.

Learn English for free www.engvid.com