Tier

animal

noun TEER Common

Also means

beast

Usage Note

Tier is the general word for any animal and forms many useful compounds, such as Haustier ('pet') and Tierarzt ('vet', literally animal-doctor). Note it is neuter, das Tier, despite many living creatures. The word also appears in Tiergarten, a traditional name for a zoo.

Examples

"Das Tier lebt im Wald."

Natural Translation

The animal lives in the forest.

Literal Translation

The animal lives in-the forest.

Free starter pack

Building your German vocabulary?

Get the 100 most common German words as a free PDF — one email, no spam.

Related Words

Explore German by topic

GermanNow

Der, Die, Das: Rules to Guess German Gender

German noun gender rules made simple: check the suffix first, then meaning. Endings like -ung, -chen, and -ling predict der, die, or das with ~90% accuracy.

June 5, 2026 6 min read

GermanNow

German Modal Verbs: Können, Müssen, Wollen and More

German modal verbs put the modal in position 2 and the real verb at the end. Master können, müssen, wollen and the rest with charts and clear examples.

June 5, 2026 5 min read

GermanNow

How to Memorize German Vocabulary Fast

Memorize German vocabulary fast with a five-step workflow: drill the top 100 words, learn nouns with their article, color-code gender, and use spaced repetition

June 5, 2026 6 min read

GermanNow

German Days, Months & Seasons (am, im & -tag)

Days of the week in German use am, months and seasons use im — plus the -tag pattern, capitalized nouns, and how to build a real sentence with a day.

June 5, 2026 4 min read