Chinese zodiac animals in Chinese

How to say the Chinese zodiac animals in Chinese

Mandarin pinyin uses tone marks. Rat is shǔ with a third tone; Ox is niú with a second; Tiger hǔ, Rabbit tù, Dragon lóng, Snake shé, Horse mǎ, Goat yáng, Monkey hóu, Rooster jī, Dog gǒu, and Pig zhū. Tones are part of the syllable, so copying the accented spelling is more useful than dropping every mark.

The everyday animal character and the Earthly Branch are related but not interchangeable. Rat is written 鼠, while its branch is 子. Horse is 马 or 馬, while its branch is 午. Traditional calendars often use the branch in a stem–branch name such as 丙午 for the 2026 Fire Horse.

Simplified and traditional characters

Most animal characters in this list look the same in simplified and traditional Chinese. Dragon changes from 龍 to 龙, Horse from 馬 to 马, Rooster or Chicken from 雞 to 鸡, and Pig from 豬 to 猪. Both writing systems refer to the same zodiac animals.

The site displays simplified forms in large headings for consistency and records a traditional form where it differs. Pinyin remains the Mandarin pronunciation guide in both cases.

Animals, branches, and year names

Learning the Chinese zodiac animals in Chinese reveals the structure behind familiar English labels. The twelve branches—子, 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥—combine with ten Heavenly Stems to produce the sixty traditional year names.

A person’s popular sign is found by the lunar year containing the birth date. Use the calculator to obtain the animal character, pinyin, element character, and stem–branch pair, or browse the years chart for exact dates.

Once the names are familiar, the written animal cycle stops looking like decorative symbols and starts acting as a readable calendar system. Each animal profile connects its language to cultural meaning, element variants, and traditional compatibility.