Do cats know what humans say?

Answer 1

Cats can be taught to understand certain words and commands, just like dogs can be taught. But without that constant effort from the cat's owner usually they do not.

And with cats you need to be more persistent when teaching, as opposed to dogs, cats do not inherently want to please their owner. Instead they want to please themselves, so finding the perfect treat for the cat is key. The other method being persistent: especially if you want them to unlearn an unwanted behavior, the negative feedback needs to come every time.

But just like dogs, every cat has its own personality, some are eager to learn and learn by themselves certain things, and like parrots they will learn certain words easily, if they are repeated often enough in context with the meaning. And some, well they are basically untrainable. But we love them anyways.

All mammals do have an inherent ability to understand basic non-verbal communication, although their range is much smaller than humans have. Facial expressions are somewhat the same, although we share more facial expressions with dogs than with cats. Also vocal nuances are very important in animal-human communication. The more important to WHAT you say is HOW you say it.

If you want to improve on your cat to understand you, do not start hoping he will learn to understand you. Start with you learning basic cat. When you have mastered 'I do not understand', 'NO', 'Oh Yes' and 'Go to Hell' in cat you can start teaching him human words. (Hint, all them are performed with the tail pose and vocal element).