--- title: Animals and "what animal are you?" — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Animals and "what animal are you?"», a lesson of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Lín asks "nǐ shǔ shénme?" — "nee SHOO SHUN-muh", literally "what do you belong to?" — and he means your zodiac animal, the anima --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/) / Animals and "what animal are you?" # Animals and "what animal are you?" Lesson 19 of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/0/) — Lín asks "nǐ shǔ shénme?" — "nee SHOO SHUN-muh", literally "what do you belong to?" — and he means your zodiac animal, the animal of the Chinese year you were born in. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/1/) — The twelve animals go in order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig; the year turns at Chinese New Year, not on 1 January, so a January birthday may belong to the year before. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/2/) — Animal names are full of surprises: xióngmāo, panda, is "bear-cat"; lǎohǔ, tiger, and lǎoshǔ, mouse, both start with lǎo, "old", but nothing about them is old. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/3/) — Tones turn animals into other things: māo (cat) is high and level, but máo rising is fur; niú (cow) is also slang for "awesome!"; yú (fish) sounds like the word for "plenty", so a whole fish is eaten at New Year. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/4/) — Chinese dragons, lóng, are lucky and wise and bring rain — not the fire-breathing baddies of English stories. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/5/) — "gǒu" (dipping) means dog; xiǎo gǒu (puppy) is sweet, but calling a person a dog is a real insult. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/6/) — "māo" (high and level) means cat; máo (rising) means fur, and also the "10p" coin of Chinese money. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/7/) — "xióngmāo" means panda, literally "bear-cat"; in Taiwan some people say māoxióng. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/8/) — "lǎohǔ" means tiger and "lǎoshǔ" means mouse or rat; the lǎo (old) in them does not mean old. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/9/) — "hóuzi" means monkey; the Monkey King of the stories is Sūn Wùkōng, and "nǐ zhēn hóu!" teases a cheeky, fidgety kid. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/10/) — "tùzi" (falling) means rabbit, and a Moon Rabbit appears in the Mid-Autumn story; tǔ (dipping) means soil. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/11/) — "zhū" (high) means pig; Peppa Pig is Xiǎo Zhū Pèiqí, and "bèn zhū" (stupid pig) is light between friends but an insult from a stranger. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/12/) — "niú" (rising) means cow or ox, and in slang "tài niú le!" means "awesome!". - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/13/) — "yú" (rising) means fish; it sounds like the word for "surplus", so a whole fish is eaten at New Year for "plenty every year", and some families never flip the fish over, like a boat capsizing. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/14/) — "lóng" (rising) means dragon; Chinese dragons are lucky, wise and bring rain. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/15/) — "nǐ shǔ shénme?" asks your zodiac animal; you answer like "wǒ shǔ lóng", I'm a Dragon. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/16/) — The twelve zodiac animals in order are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig; the Rat comes first and is thought clever. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/19-animals-and-your-zodiac-animal/17/) — The zodiac year begins at Chinese New Year (late January or February), so someone born in early January belongs to the year before. - ← previous: [The body](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/18-the-body/) - next →: [Weather and what Granny says to wear](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/20-weather-and-what-granny-says-to-wear/) - ↑ back to [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/)