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Animals in Dutch

The Dutch word for animal is het dier, so “the animal” is het dier and “the animals” is de dieren. A pet is een huisdier, a dog de hond, a cat de kat. Animal vocabulary is worth learning early because Dutch is unusually rich in animal idioms — you cannot follow everyday conversation without knowing that een kat in de zak kopen has nothing to do with cats. This page gives you the words by category, then the idioms.

“Animal” in Dutch: dier, dieren and related words

Dier is a het-word, and like every plural in Dutch its plural takes de: het dier → de dieren. It also works as the first part of many compounds, where it usually appears as dieren-.

Example sentences: Heb je huisdieren? (Do you have pets?) — Ja, een hond en twee katten. (Yes, a dog and two cats.) Het dier is ziek; we gaan naar de dierenarts. (The animal is ill; we're going to the vet.) In everyday speech beest is often used for any animal, and beestje for a small creature or insect.

Pets (huisdieren)

A pet is een huisdier (literally “house-animal”). Most animal nouns are de-words; the notable het-exceptions are marked in the tables.

Dutch uses diminutives affectionately for pets: a cat is often een poesje, a dog een hondje, a rabbit een konijntje. Every diminutive is a het-word regardless of the base noun — see Dutch diminutives. There is also a specific set of words for the young: a puppy is een puppy or een jong, and a kitten is een kitten or een katje.

Farm animals (boerderijdieren)

The Netherlands is famously flat, green and full of livestock, so these words appear on every train ride through the countryside.

Birds and small creatures

Wild animals (wilde dieren)

Two useful spelling points: wolf → wolven and beer → beren show the f→v and long-vowel changes covered in Dutch plurals. And beware the English look-alike: beer is the animal (it also means a boar, a male pig), while the drink is bier.

Sea, water and reptile animals

A country that is partly below sea level has plenty of water words. Vis is both the animal and the food (Ik eet geen vis, I don't eat fish).

What animals say: sounds and verbs

Dutch animal noises are spelled differently from English ones, and each animal has its own verb. Children's books and toddler conversations are full of the question Wat zegt de koe? (“What does the cow say?”).

Animal idioms the Dutch love

Dutch is genuinely full of animal expressions, and many come up in ordinary speech. Here the literal translation and the real meaning sit side by side.

Practice: a quick animals self-test

Cover the right-hand column and fill in the article and the animal. It works as a printable worksheet: the answers are the article plus the noun, which is how you should memorise every animal — the de/het guide explains why.

Frequently asked questions

How do you say “animal” in Dutch?

Animal is het dier; the plural “the animals” is de dieren. A pet is het huisdier, and informally any animal can be called een beest.

Is dier a de or het word?

Dier is a het-word: het dier, dit dier, een klein dier. In the plural it becomes de dieren, because all Dutch plurals take de.

Are most animal names de or het in Dutch?

Most are de-words (de hond, de kat, de koe). Common het-exceptions are het paard, het schaap, het varken, het konijn and het hert, and every diminutive such as het hondje.

What is the Dutch word for dog and cat?

Dog is de hond (plural honden) and cat is de kat (plural katten). Poes is the everyday affectionate word for a cat, especially a female or pet cat.

What sound does a dog make in Dutch?

A Dutch dog says woef and the verb is blaffen (to bark). A cat says miauw, a cow boe, a pig knor and a rooster kukeleku.