inu

Animals in Japanese / Names List / Starting with i い

Translation

inu means "Dog" in English.

You Dog!

inu 犬 can also be used in a derogatory way. It can also be used to call someone someone else's "dog," specially a police's "dog," that is, to call someone a spy or secret agent.

inu written with kanji is 犬.
This is a jouyou kanji 常用漢字, taught in the first year of shougakkou 小学校.

inu written with katakana is イヌ.
inu written with hiragana is いぬ.

Romaji	i	nu
Hiragana	い	ぬ
Katakana	イ	ヌ
Kanji	犬
School Level	小１

Trivia

"Dog food" in Japanese is doggu-fuddo ドッグフード.

entorebuhhā-kyatoru-doggu エントレブッハー・キャトル・ドッグ — entorebuhhā-kyatoru-doggu エントレブッハー・キャトル・ドッグ

Synonyms

doggu ドッグ, Canis lupus familiaris, Canis familiaris.

Beware: some kanji that are difficult to handwrite are easy to type on the computer, which may skew the usage statistics.

Further Reading

Wikipedia: 犬 (Dog)

entorebuhhā-kyatoru-doggu エントレブッハー・キャトル・ドッグ, kari-inu 猟犬, koinu 子犬, tategami-inu 鬣犬, burudoggu ブルドッグ, ryouken 猟犬.