How do you say baby animals like “puppy” in Russian?

Щенок is “puppy,” and many Russian baby-animal words share the ending -ёнок / -онок: котёнок (kitten, from кот), медвежонок (bear cub), лисёнок (fox cub), утёнок (duckling). The same ending is in ребёнок, a human child. Once you know it, you’ll recognise these words when you hear them.

Their plural usually switches to -ята: котёнок → котята, медвежонок → медвежата. Ребёнок is the exception: its standard plural is дети, though ребята (“guys, kids”) works as a plural in everyday speech. Щенок has two plurals, щенки and щенята. This puppy hated car rides, so its owner turned an old tyre into a seat with a little door its head can poke out of.