In Mandarin Chinese, names of things can combine of more than one concept. In fact, we can see this in the names of some Animals in Mandarin Chinese. These names are in the form of compound words consisting of multiple concepts, such as:
- “fire” plus “chicken” equals “turkey”
- “pine” plus “rat” equals “squirrel”
- “bear” plus “cat” equals “panda”
- “river” plus “horse” equals “hippopotamus”
- “dragon” plus “shrimp” equals “lobster”
More Chinese Words for Animals
In addition to the above words, there are more similar compund words for animal names in Chinese.
猫头鹰/mao tou ying – cat headed bird of pray (owl)
海豚 hai tun- seapig (dolphin)
Play Hao Wan Game to learn top 100 Chinese characters.