Cats may be able to learn human words

For some prime direct examples of cat language comprehension, look at YouTube videos of cats set up with talking buttons. Most will pick up the basics like "food" and "play" easily, and some will actively use dozens of words to communicate as well as basic compound ideas (like "mad" "outside" when it's raining).

Anecdotally, we have multiple pets of which four are cats and they all know their names and generally respond or come if called. (Unless seriously napping, of course)

My cat might be listening to me, but he isn't doing what I tell him to do ...

I think it&#x27;s noteworthy when science &quot;discovers&quot; things that are common knowledge within a particular interest group.<p>Like the one mentioned in the link below from 2019 that is commonly cited as one that shows cats are capable of &quot;love&quot;. As a lifetime cat owner I thought this was common knowledge.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nbcnews.com&#x2F;health&#x2F;health-news&#x2F;cats-really-do-need-their-humans-even-if-they-don-n1057431" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nbcnews.com&#x2F;health&#x2F;health-news&#x2F;cats-really-do-ne...</a>

Anecdotally, my cat&#x27;s definitely know the word &quot;Greenies&quot; for their favorite treats.<p>Fairly recently, I was calling one who was napping to let her know I was about to dispense them. She woke up, lifted her head, perked her ears and watched me when I called her name. She was clearly paying attention but not moving from her spot. Then I said the magic word and the reaction was startlingly immediate - she leapt up and ran right to me, then followed until I got them out and poured some out.

&gt; whereas other groups have shown that cats follow human pointing<p>Thinking about the ones that don&#x27;t seem to understand pointing... I&#x27;m imagining Professor Farnsworth&#x27;s Fing-Longer [0], so you start out poking things, and gradually make the substance more transparent. Eventually, you don&#x27;t need it because the animal assumes there&#x27;s more beyond your visible finger...<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=aT593tu0Rlo" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=aT593tu0Rlo</a>

Our 11-year-old Bengal cat basically converses with us. You call her, she&#x27;ll respond or just look at you, acknowledging that she heard you, but reacting is completely her choice.<p>Sometimes, she brings us gifts. IF, she likes someone, she might give them a gift, and she will bring it to that person, you&#x27;ll know it&#x27;s for you, not anyone else.<p>When we are eating, she will query us. We need to either share with her, or let her sniff, to let her make sure, we are not eating something tasty without her.<p>She&#x27;ll bring toys, if she wants to play, or a pot if she needs water, she&#x27;ll nudge you to things that she wants.<p>Other 5 cats, understand each of their names, but nowhere near close as smart as her. Still, I saw one trying to open the cabinet where we store cat foods (he did that several times already, I was not sure which one was doing it), I am looking for ways to keep that cabinet closed :|<p>I think it&#x27;s something to do with my wife, she has some magic with animals, with her love and caring

How well animals can learn human words could depend on how attuned their hearing is to EQ curves in the frequency ranges that articulate vowels, and such. To some animals that hear well into ultrasound, human speech might just be a low-frequency jumble.<p>According to some cursory web searches can supposedly hear past 60 kHz, possibly as high as 85 kHz, with a particular sensitivity in the 8 kHz region. That, to humans, is the start of the &quot;air&quot; frequencies where the sibilant sounds of speech are found.

Also: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42021040">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42021040</a>

Isn’t it obvious that an animal that knows the sound of its prey (like a mouse scurrying or squeaking) can associate particular sounds with objects? Or as another example, I have a laser pointer that makes a sound when I switch it on. When my cats hear that sound, they instantly start scurrying around looking for the little dot of laser light to chase.

Hey mods, can we update the title here to &quot;Your Cat is Listening to You&quot;? That&#x27;s the actual title.

my cat 100% knows the word “hungry”

Off-topic and sorry: this must be a new record, I have never seen website sharing data with 1581 partners.

Reading the title, I thought this was going to be about a backdoor in the Unix program...

How is this not common knowledge? Anyone who ever interacted with a cat knows they learn words. Cows, horses and other mammals do too.

Not helpful. Obviously, cats learn words. The question is, how do we get them to give a fuck about what we&#x27;re saying?