can animals understand english?

Yes, thenameis… has some very good points.

Animals that have been around humans a lot learn to pick up clues … it’s to their own benefit, because they learn very quikcly that food and other goodies tend to come from humans that are pleased with them.

What they are superb at is reading body language. Voices as well, but especially body language - which all animal trainers know and use.

(Many years ago there was a famous horse who was supposed to be able to do addition. The owner would read out the question,and then slowly count…and lo and behold, the horse would tap the ground with his hoof when the right answer came up. Only after lengthy testing did they find out that the owner - perhaps unintentionally - was giving clues by his body language and voice tone, when the right answer came..

There is quite a range of intelligence in animals. Many reptiles have no long term memory, they live almost entirely on instinct. People who own snakes as pets might believe that their pets like them and cuddle up to them but in truth they are only seeking their owner’s warmth. Cats will never understand English sentence structure but they may learn to associate words with actions or things. Dogs being more social animals generally pick up more words. I’m rather amazed at the large number of words my dog associates with food or going on walks. I feel sorry for him when someone uses one of these words in a sentence that has nothing to do with him eating or going outside because they get his hopes up. Researchers have taught higher primates to communicate with sign language or special computer keyboards. We know that they understand language structure because they form and understand sentences with combinations of words they had never encountered before. Some have estimated IQs of great apes as high as 80 which is rather amazing considering that in humans this score would not necessarily be considered a deficiency.

No, they only associate, but sometimes, I think that humans think theat they understand what they are saying because of the “energy” behind the voice (the tone of voice).

For example, the word “walkies”… it is usually said, in a high-pitched, excited voice, and that is passed down to the animal, they are not stupid, and I think that they pick up on the excitement in your voice so know that something exciting is going to come.

Also, I thinkt that you would find that if your were to shout the word “walkies” with an angry voice, the dog wouldn’t react in the same way.

Hope this helps!

its proven that animals can recognise words when associated with something e.g. sit when then forced to sit by baiting them with food etc. however they can notunderstand our language! x

Yes it all depends how you’re animal was train.When I tell my dog to sit without any action then he will sit so that makes me believe that they do understand u.

cats dont understand any languages they try 2 understand your feelings & expressions that what you want from her if you know any other language try she will understand what you want

Well you call a dog by it’s name and it comes. You say “walkies” and it understands, “din dins” and it knows what you’re on about so in a way yes. It is although a lot to do with the owners tone of voice.

they understand the tone of voice but not exactly what you are saying. They get the jist though