Graznan sus quejas. (They cry out/babble out their complaints.) 10. The verb used for duck quacking is graznar, and quite fabulously it can also be used to describe high-pitched, unimportant babble sometimes emitted by humans. (She’s bragging about the money she earned.) 9. For example:Ĭacarea el dinero que ha gañado. The verb in Spanish is cacarear, and when you hear it used with a human as the subject it means to boast about something. It’s hard to top cock-a-doodle-do for aural silliness, but the Spanish quiquiriquí comes close. If you ever find yourself running dry for conversation in an international business mixer, youth hostel or airport, just ask your fellow world travelers what sound they think a rooster makes.

cuclillo (cuckoo) - cucúĬuclillo is a cuckoo in Spanish when used to describe a human it means a cuckold. Then, of course, there’s the activity that provides meaning to the lives of all, human and fowl alike: cantar (to sing). To trill or warble in your throat, whether you’re a human or a bird, is trinar, gorjear or gorgoritar. The verb form is piar, and pipiar and piolar mean the same thing.

If you want to emphasize that you won’t reveal a secret, you can say: Bird Sounds in SpanishĪ pío (that’s an accent mark, not a dot, so make sure you stress the I: “PEE-oh”) is a tweet or chirp. In Spanish, los burros rebuznan (the donkeys bray) and rebuznar means to loudly insult or complain, usually for no good reason. I’ve never met a language that treated donkeys with any respect. So Spanish porkers are seen as complainers, but then, maybe they’re tired of seeing their brethren’s cured legs (jamón ibérico) hanging in every home, café, and bar. Los cerdos gruñen (pigs grunt/oink) using the verb gruñir, which also means to complain, mutter and whine. Ovejas y cabras balan (sheep and goats bleat) using the verb balar (to bleat). The verb cacarear is also used for hens, even though their sounds (and the onomatopoeia for them) are quite different. Cows can mugir (to moo), remudiar (to moo back and forth between calf and cow) and bramar (to moo loudly/angrily). Spanish verbs for the beasts’ communication are also better. Spanish has the same onomatopoeia for cow noises as English-their phonetic spelling of it is simply superior. Now let’s meet some animals and say hello to them… in Spanish. I’ve tried to present the sounds that are most commonly used in the whole Spanish-speaking world and use their most common spellings, but do note that there are some regional variations out there. At times, theses verbs and onomatopoeia provide lovely insight into how Spanish speakers hear and experience these animal sounds, and sometimes they’re just plain fun. I’ve also included the verbs that describe these sounds (just like English’s “a lamb bleats,” “a horse whinnies,” etc.). What follows is my shortlist of the fauna most worth talking to, accompanied by the noises you should make when communicating with them in Spanish. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy. paloma (dove) - cu-curru-cu-cú, cucurrucucú It’s time, then, to learn to speak to animals, and yes, the Spanish ear has a whole different way of hearing their squawks, honks and roars. This post is for those who might be a bit tapped out from learning to speak Spanish to humans, with all their complex slang, metaphors and counter-intuitive expressions. Sure, you think you can quack like a duck.īut can you quack in the language of Cervantes?

Octo20 Animal Sounds in Spanish: Can You Bray, Squawk and Meow en Español?

Scary fox sounds