Essential English Vocabulary: Humans, Animals, and Nature

Animal Rights Vocabulary

• Mistreat: maltratar
• Tame: domesticado
• Endangered species: especies en vías de extinción
• Extinct: extinguido
• Cage: jaula
• Wildlife: vida salvaje
• Laboratory: laboratorio
• Research: investigación
• Experiment: experimento
• Human guinea pigs: conejillos de indias humanos
• Species: especie
• Breed: criar
• Ethical: ético
• Hunt: cazar
• Free-range: ecológico, de granja
• Vegetarian: vegetariano
• Factory farms: producción industrial de animales de granja
• In captivity: en cautiverio

Nature or Nurture Concepts

• Formative: developmental
• Portrayed: depicted, shown
• Dog-like: with characteristics similar to a dog
• Upbringing: raising
• Raw: uncooked
• Orphanage: center where children whose parents have died

Phrasal Verbs Related to Care & Acquisition

• Bring up: raise or look after while growing up
• Look after: take care of
• Take on: adopt
• Pick up: acquire

Common False Friends

• Education (enseñanza) – Upbringing (educación)
  Note: "Education" refers to formal schooling, while "Upbringing" refers to the way a child is raised.
• Vicious (brutal, feroz) – Depraved, dissolute (vicioso)
  Note: "Vicious" often implies dangerous or aggressive, while "vicioso" in Spanish can mean addicted or depraved.

The Natural World: Animal Classifications & Behaviors

• Carnivore: carnívoro
• Predator: depredador
• Food chain: cadena alimenticia
• Nocturnal: nocturno
• Mammal: mamífero
• Hibernates: hiberna (not "invernadero")
• Herbivores: herbívoro
• Feed on: alimentarse
• Reptile: reptil
• Lay eggs: poner huevos
• Prey: presa
• Invertebrate: invertebrado
• Give birth to: dar a luz
• Offspring: descendencia, cría
• Young: joven
• Primate: primate
• Vertebrate: vertebrado
• Omnivore: omnívoro

Animal Idioms and Expressions

• Get it straight from the horse’s mouth: heard it directly from the original source
• Have butterflies in her stomach: felt really nervous
• Let the cat out of the bag: told the secret
• Take the bull by the horns: decided to take action boldly
• Wouldn’t hurt a fly: be a very gentle person

Word-Building: Compound Nouns

Compound nouns can be written in different ways:

• As one word: wildlife, mousetrap
• With a hyphen: fox-hunting
• As two words: safari park, animal rights, horse race, human rights, human race, insect repellent, human nature, pet shop

Rules for Compound Nouns

• Adjective + Noun: In plural, we only change the noun.
  Example: black birds (plural of "black bird")
• Noun + Noun: The first noun is usually singular, even if the meaning is plural.
  Example: reptile house (a house for reptiles)
• In the plural form: We only change the second noun.
  Example: fishing nets (plural of "fishing net")